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THE NEW AVATAR 

AND 

The Destiny of the Soul 



THE NEW AVATAR 



AND 



The Destiny of the Soul 



THE FINDINGS OF NATURAL SCIENCE 
REDUCED TO PRACTICAL STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 



By 



JIRAH D. BUCK, M.D. 

Author of 

'Mystic Masonry," "A Study of Man," "Christos," " The Genius of Freemasonry, 

"Constructive Psychology," "The Lost Word Found," 

"Browning's Paracelsus," and other MSS. 



CINCINNATI 

THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY 

1911 



COPYRIGHT 

STEWART & KIDD CO. 

1911 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England 



All Bights Beserved 






THE QUINN 4 BODEN CO. PRESS 
RAHWAY, N. J. 



© CI. A 2 8 9 1 G 9 



TO THE 

GREAT FRIENDS 

THE HELPERS — VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE — 
WHOSE DEEPEST MOTIVE AND HIGHEST AIM 
ARE TO ENCOURAGE, UPLIFT, AND INSPIRE 

THOSE WHO NEED; 

THAT ALL, AT LAST, MAY STAND 

TOGETHER 

IN THE MIDST OF 

THE 

RADIANT SPLENDOR 

OF 

ETERNAL 
TRUTH 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

FOREWORD xi 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

SECTION ONE 
STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

Chapter One 

CLASSIFICATION OF FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, 

AND POWERS 3 

Chapter Two 
EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE . . 9 

Chapter Three 
MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS . 18 

Chapter Four 
THE MEASURE OF VALUES 29 

Chapter Five 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS .... 50 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

Chapter Six 

page 
THE CROSS IN RELIGION AND THE CRUX IN 

SCIENCE 68 

Chapter Seven 

THE MODULUS OF NATURE AND THE THEOREM 

OF PSYCHOLOGY . . . . . . .93 



SECTION TWO 
THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

Chapter Eight 
OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA . .111 

Chapter Nine 
HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE . . . 136 

Chapter Ten 
CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE . . . .146 

Chapter Eleven 
CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR . 151 

Chapter Twelve 
PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME . . .164 



CONTENTS ix 



Chapter Thirteen 

page 
THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE . . 171 



Chapter Fourteen 
FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION . . 191 

• . Chapter Fifteen 

THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A KNOWL- 
EDGE OF THE HUMAN SOUL . . . .208 

Chapter Sixteen 
THE NEW AVATAR 218 

NOTES 223 



FOREWORD 

THE reader who is willing to give the following 
pages a careful reading, and a courteous hear- 
ing, is entitled to know the basis of study, observa- 
tion or experience from which the suggestions, 
inferences and conclusions proceed, in order that 
he may fairly estimate their value. 

At the age of seventy-two, my egotism is at 
least softened by the discovery of the many things I 
do not know; and my dogmatism, so far as it ever 
existed, is equally relaxed by the realization that it 
is a bar to light and knowledge, which rest so 
largely on demonstration. 

For more than forty-five years I have been en- 
gaged in the active practice of medicine with con- 
sultations extending over three States. 

For an equal length of time I have lectured in 
Medical Colleges, fifteen years on the subject of 
Physiology, an equal number on Therapeutics (in- 
cluding Pathology and Histology), and for the last 
fifteen years on Psychology, Mental and Nervous 
Diseases, and all this time with a large College 
Clinic from the poorer classes. 

From first to last, my " Study of Medicine " 
has been generically and specifically a " Study of 
Man," physical, mental, ethical, and psychical. 

Outside of Medicine as a " Calling " or a " Pro- 



xii FOREWORD 

fession " my real interest has been to unravel the 
nature of man, grasp the problem of human life, 
and to apprehend the nature, laws, and destiny of 
the human soul. My library covers a rather con- 
tinuous thread from 1543, and the time of Para- 
celsus, to Profs. James, Ladd, Lombroso, Sir 
Oliver Lodge, and Miinsterberg. 

My reading dips into the Sacred Books of the 
East, the records of the Past, and particularly 
the psychic phenomena of different ages, finding 
at last the Constructive Theorem clearer than 
anywhere else in the " School of Natural Science," 
from the fact that it is demonstrably cognizant 
of all preceding work, and definitely conforms to 
the strict demands of Science — Physical, Mental, 
Ethical, Psychical and Spiritual, and proves to be 
the very tiling for which I have searched for nearly 
half a century. 

The foregoing statements are not made to force 
credulity nor to assume authority. They simply 
mean — This is how, and where, and how long, I 
have been searching, largely, also at the bedside of 
the sick, the deranged and the dying; from the first 
breath of the little one that comes — 

' ; Out from the shore of the Great Unknown 
Weeping and wailing and all alone," 

to the death-damp and the last sigh of the aged; 

in one case at nearly one hundred and four years. 

Once I found an old lady of eighty, dying. The 

"death-damp" on her brow; the "death-rattle" 



FOREWORD xiii 

in her throat; the chin dropped, and no pulse at the 
wrist. She had a wayward son who had been prom- 
ised due notice of any change, and he had been sent 
for. Speaking distinctly in her ear I called her 
back; the motive being the grief of her son at not 
bidding each other good-bye. The response was 
immediate. The " rattle " in her throat ceased. 
The pulse promptly returned. The mouth closed. 
Then I said — " open your eyes," which she promptly 
did with a gentle smile. " You are not going to 
do it," I said. " No," she replied. The son soon 
came in and received his mother's caress and 
blessing. At the same hour on the following day, 
she passed peacefully to the beyond, dying of old 
age. Had it been a " crisis " in disease, she might 
have recovered. 

As a psychic phenomenon I never saw anything 
just like it. Had I before doubted the existence 
of a " separable soul," it would have ended all 
doubt. From the magnetic border of the " Great 
Divide " with a sufficient motive, I literally " called 
her back." 

The evidence of the concreteness, and wholeness 
and self-awareness of the Individual Intelligence, 
functioning in and through, and separable from 
the physical body, was complete. No other explana- 
tion or conclusion would fit or cover the case at all. 
Had I been clairvoyant and able to see the entity, 
it would have been another link in a chain whose 
sequence pointed all one way. But even here I 
was not without a witness. 



xiv FOREWORD 

In another case, an old lady was dying. A " Plat- 
form Lecturer" (Mediumistic) was present and 
described, incidentally, what she saw. She was a 
good, clean, ignorant woman and only " controlled " 
on the Platform. 

She described a vapor emanating from the body, 
as the " death-damp " increased, and outer " aware- 
ness " failed. This vapor seemed to adhere together 
until it stood near the head, rounded and nearly 
reaching the ceiling. Then the " spirit form " 
passed out from the top of the head, was inclosed 
in the ball of " vapor," and together they " floated 
away." 

I found that she had never heard of the " Auric- 
egg " nor read a page of the old Eastern philosophy, 
and yet she had accurately described, step by step, 
what the Masters for ages declare occurs at death. 

Science is the careful observation, demonstration 
and record of Facts, their orderly grouping or 
classification, and the logical and sequential con- 
clusions resulting therefrom. 

It is not a matter of opinion and belief, nor 
dogma and denial, no matter how large, respectable, 
and sincere may be the army of the dogmatists. 

Take these suggestions and conclusions — my 
friend — for what you think them worth, since now 
you know how far they have grown from experience 
and the love and search for the simple Truth. 

The temptation to quote and annotate from many 
authors is very great, but the material is so abun- 
dant that one scarcely knows where to begin, where 



FOREWORD xv 

to end; and as the address is solely to the reader 
of " average intelligence," and argument is elimi- 
nated as far as possible, many quotations could do 
little more than confirm opinions, and would extend 
beyond the limits designed by the author, or the 
brief space and popular form more desirable for 
the average reader. 

Repetitions in the text seemed unavoidable for 
the reason, that at every phase of the subject I 
have continually to regard the Individual, and that 
aggregate called Society; the inner conscious life 
of one, and the associate elements and conditions 
regarding the many, and from different view- 
points. 

Man, the Individual, is like a " wheel within a 
wheel," the larger circle being Humanity as a 
whole. 

Nor does the thought or concept stop here. There 
is the relation of the Individual Intelligence we 
call MAN to the Universal Intelligence we call 
GOD, which as related to Nature is " In All, 
Through All, Over All, and Above All." 

Not an " Absentee God," but Illuminant within 
and without revealing itself in what we call Love 
and Law. 

Here " in brief " I rest the case and proceed to the 
evidence. 



INTRODUCTION 

IN " A Study of Man, and the Way of Health," 
first published twenty-one years ago, as a general 
outline for my classes of Medical Students, to enable 
them to grasp the real problem of life, and to 
emphasize the Study of Man, as basic in the Study 
of Medicine, the following epitome was placed in the 
Preface. 

" The cosmic form in which all things are created 
and in which all things exist is a Universal Duality. 

Involution and Evolution express the two-fold 
process of the One Law of Development, corre- 
sponding to the two planes of being, the Subjective 
and the Objective. 

Consciousness is the central Fact of Being. 

Experience is the only method of knowing. 

Therefore, to Know, is to Become. 

The Modulus of Nature, that is, the Pattern, 
after which she everywhere builds, and the Method 
to which she continually conforms is an Ideal, or 
Archetypical Man. 

The Perfect Man is the anthropomorphic God. 
A living, potential Christ in every human soul. 

Two natures meet on the human plane, and 
focalize in man. 

These are the Animal Ego and the Higher Self. 
The one, an inheritance from lower life. The other, 
an overshadowing from the next higher plane. 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

The Animal Principle is Selfishness. The Divine 
Principle is Altruism. 

However defective in other respects human nature 
may be, all human endeavor must finally be meas- 
ured by the principle of Altruism and must stand 
or fall by the measure in which it inspires and up- 
lifts Humanity. 

The highest tribunal is the criterion of Truth, and 
the test of truth is by its use and beneficence. ' BY 
THEIR WORK YE MAY KNOW THEM.' 

Superstition is not Religion; Speculation is not 
Philosophy; Materialism is not Science; but true 
religion, true philosophy and true science are ever 
the hand-maids of Truth, and will at last be found 
in perfect harmony." 

After more than twenty years of continuous and 
careful study since the foregoing was written, I must 
still confirm and emphasize these basic propositions 
to-day. 

The attempt is herein made to apply them more 
particularly to the study of Psychology. To add 
to what was then discerned and designated as 
" the Modulus of Nature," an exact and com- 
prehensive Theorem of Psychology. 

I am well aware how presumptuous this would 
in certain quarters be considered, if there were the 
least probability that " those in authority " would 
read these pages at all. The motive is involved in 
the modulus, and I am quite content to leave it 
there, while the " common people," it is hoped, may 
find herein, as I have found in the search for more 



INTRODUCTION xix 

light, encouragement, inspiration, and hope. And 
these may lead to Understanding. 

It is the farthest possible from my thought or 
wish to ignore or belittle the labors of earnest stu- 
dents and writers on Psychology. 

But there is a habit of conservatism in Physical 
Science to-day, that in spirit and effect differs very 
little from Dogma and Orthodoxy in Religion. It 
concerns methods rather than results. It is gen- 
erally incredulous through fear of being over- 
credulous. It is bound by tradition, or the records 
of the past, and its dogmas are deductions from the 
consensus of opinions, rather than " decrees in 
councils " or " Infallible Popes." 

Occasionally a Scientist, like Sir Oliver Lodge, 
seems to be utterly rid of both credulity and in- 
credulity, and for these, Science really means — 
" the Facts of Nature, demonstrated, classified, and 
systematized." 

But for the " Common People," the average in- 
telligent student, for whom Science and the pur- 
suit of Knowledge is not a Profession, but a desire 
to know, and to understand, in order to be able to 
use wisely and well, it is of far less importance 
to know what others think or believe, deny or 
affirm, on the subject of Psychology, than to realize 
what are the faculties, capacities, and powers of their 
own souls. 

Knowledge for the sake of knowledge, like " Art 
for Art's sake," is one thing, Knowledge for use 
in daily life, and for illuminating its pathway and 



XX 



INTRODUCTION 



revealing the purpose and destiny of man, is some- 
thing different indeed. 

This hunger of the individual soul for real knowl- 
edge is perhaps the most patent " Sign of the 
Times." 

The average intelligent individual has broken 
away from the traditions of the past, and yet found 
nothing to take their place. One result is empty 
churches, and the race for wealth, display, position, 
and power. Increased idleness begets dissipation, 
Paresis and Insanity increase, while wasted oppor- 
tunity both shortens and embitters life. 

A very large number of intelligent men and 
women realizing all this, and repelled by the almost 
contemptuous conservatism of so-called Science, 
swing to the. side of credulity, and are robbed and ex- 
ploited by charlatans. They believe the Truth 
ought to be forthcoming, and their intuitions and 
demands, though oft leading to sore disappoint- 
ment, deserve a better fate. 

It is for these, and for these reasons, that these 
pages are written, and with no other hope of fame 
or reward. 

The demand is everywhere for Knowledge of the 
soul. Facts there are in abundance, but how far 
these facts are demonstrated, so as to constitute a 
basis of exact science, and how to classify and 
systematize them, the average intelligence does not 
know. 

The Psychical Scientist claims to know, and un- 
doubtedly does know, but he busies himself almost 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

exclusively in gathering and verifying more facts. 
When asked by the average intelligence, " What 
does it all mean?" — the answer is, "Ah! there's 
the rub. Wait! Some day we may know." 

The simple fact is that the Scientist is bewildered, 
while the theologian and the dogmatist appeal to 
Faith without Knowledge, and invoke miracle as 
in all past times. 

Spiritualism has had its day and left an immense 
body of facts, while Mediumship and the dark 
circle are more often repudiated by intelligent 
professed Spiritualists. Satisfied as to conscious 
existence after death as a fact, they have learned 
how generally unreliable are many messages from 
departed friends, owing to conditions beyond their 
control; while the effect of surrender to so-called 
" spirit-control " contributes to neither health nor 
a well-balanced mind or character. 

Hypnotism maintains a precarious hold, simply 
through juggling with the words, " Suggestion " 
and " Hypnosis." The professional hypnotist, yield- 
ing as he must to the public fear and condemnation 
of Hypnotism, advocates Just a little of it! under 
the false title " Suggestion," for the good it is 
claimed to do in such cases as the drink and drug 
habit. As though a little further weakening of the 
will, would ultimately tend to restore and strengthen 
it! 

One is reminded of the baby in " Pendennis." 
The Mother " hoped the Lord would forgive her, 
because it was such a little one! " 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

Even the leaders in the " Emmanuel Movement " 
have deceived themselves by this sophistry, and 
while they applaud the temporary results, they 
seem unaware that they are still further weakening 
self-control and real character, by dominating the 
Will. 

It is thus that ignorance, confusion and unrest, 
like waves of ocean, ebb and flow in the great 
human tides. 

Through impatience and discouragement alone, 
many give up the quest for knowledge as hopeless, 
and while too well-balanced to drift into dissipa- 
tion, they suffer from ennui and become pessimistic. 

Real knowledge will not come all at once, like a 
vision, or a complete revelation. 

The first real Light that comes will be that of 
Faith, a term generally misunderstood and mis- 
used. 

Faith is the complete antithesis of blind dogma 
and superstition. It is born within the soul, and 
never imposed by outward authority enforced by 
fear. 

" Faith is the soul's intuitive conviction of that 
which both reason and conscience approve." 

To give intellectual assent to belief in God is one 
thing; to be able to declare with light and warmth 
that uplifts and inspires, " 1 know that my Re- 
deemer liveth " is another thing entirely. 

The impatience above referred to would see the 
end from the beginning, and know all about the 
development and destiny of the soul before it has 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

learned the first lesson that guides and determines 
both. 

When, however, Science and Religion clasp 
hands, and the facts of nature guided by the light 
of Faith, build character and guide progress, there 
is revealed a Philosophy of Life that needs little 
revision. It is like the compass that points con- 
tinually to the pole, and gives unqualified assur- 
ance as to the direction we are going. 

So also every step in the past enables us to get 
our bearings and verify our course by checking 
backward. 

Faith is no longer a blind dogma, but a compass 
in the box of experience, the wise mariner's guide 
in the voyage of life. 

If neither Science, Religion nor Philosophy, nor 
all together can thus come to the service of man, can 
not do it now, after all the weary centuries since 
Plato and Aristotle, we may as well write qui bono 
on our banners and trail them in the dust! 

Even the theologies of the day, recognizing the 
dilemma and the difficulties, still cling to the 
miraculous, and to make the best of a bad bargain, 
offer dogma in the place of demonstration, and con- 
tradictory and blind belief in place of the light of 
Faith. 

While they count thousands as nominally in their 
communion, the intelligent among all these have 
many " mental reservations." 

The intelligent thought of the world flows past 
and beyond them. 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

The " Soul's intuitive conviction " agreeing with 
" both reason and conscience " holds and guides 
them, in spite of the verbal " confession of faith." 

The Divinity of Jesus, the Christ, can be fully 
explained under natural and divine law, without 
invoking miracle. 

The result of such explanation is to dethrone him 
from the altars of dogma and superstition, and en- 
throne him on the altar of Love in the heart of 
Humanity. 

This is long delayed, but cannot be defeated. 



STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 



CHAPTER I 

CLASSIFICATION OF FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, 
AND POWERS 

STARTING with the Modulus of Nature— an 
Ideal or Archetypal Man, and coming down to 
practical things in daily life — 

1. Man is an Individual Intelligence. This is 
taken as an empirical fact, patent to every intelli- 
gent individual. 

The source and nature of intelligence itself need 
not here concern us. We may call it an ultimate 
that all the philosophies of the world have signally 
failed to explain. It is something that grows, in- 
creases or decreases, expands, becomes confused, 
according to the conditions of bodily organ and 
function, heredity, environment, personal effort and 
the like; but so far as we know, it is the same 
thing, large or small, wise or foolish. It is still, 
measure for measure, Individual Intelligence. 

2. The term Individual means distinct, concrete, 
relatively separate. Man being an Individual In- 
telligence; God is the Universal Intelligence. Just 
as the organism of man is involved in, and evolved 
from Universal Nature; so the Intelligence of 
man is involved in, and evolved from Universal 
Intelligence. 

3 



4 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

The empirical fact of the intelligence of man 
presupposes a " sufficient reason " or source. Still 
we do not know what God and Nature and Intelli- 
gence are. We only know how they manifest. Our 
intelligence enables us to observe, reflect, reason, 
and in some measure apprehend the method and 
manifestation. 

I am not seeking to build nor unfold a " Phi- 
losophy." " Yes," someone replies, " but a phi- 
losophy is implied or involved." 

Very well, let it unfold itself. 

3. The next empirical fact of prime importance 
is, The Individual Intelligence, not of man, but 
which is man, is aware of itself, i. e., " self-conscious." 
It is able to distinguish between the self and the 
non-self. 

4. Again, as to consciousness, as with intelli- 
gence : We know that man has it and uses it, and 
what it does to some extent; but we do not know 
what it is, intrinsically, nor do we need to know 
any of these ultimates. The effort to explain them 
has never ended in anything but confusion. We 
shall herein name them, and then pass them. 

5. We have now postulated a self-conscious, 
Individual Intelligence, as the real man. Next we 
find this Man can do things, or refrain from doing; 
act, or refrain from action. This is called Initiative, 
Volition, Will. 

6. This power of action and of choice, inspired 
by intelligence, aware of the self, adapts actions to 
ends. This involves reason and judgment. 



FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, AND POWERS 5 

7. In the course of experience along the lines of 
action or restraint, and observing results in either 
case, the individual desiring or preferring certain 
results to others, acquires more or less self-control. 
He controls himself to secure desired results. 

Here then, in brief outline, are the basis and the 
elements of our Psychology. They are drawn from 
common observation and experience, and are verified 
by the facts of daily life — generally complicated, 
confused, or lost sight of in treatises on psychology. 

Two of these factors, viz. : Consciousness and Will, 
enter into all psychological phenomena such as 
Hypnotism and Mediumship, and into every form 
of mental alienation, insanity, obsession and the like. 

Moreover, by building out of mental phenomena 
a distinct entity — largely independent of the self- 
conscious Intelligence, and almost equally so with 
consciousness — our " philosophies," " metaphysics," 
and explanations have become as confused and un- 
reliable as the psychical phenomenon itself. 

Hudson's so-called " Law of Psychic Phenomena," 
" Subliminal " and " Supraliminal Consciousness," 
and the juggling with the terms " suggestion " and 
" hypnosis " may serve as sufficient illustrations. In 
each instance phenomena are made to take the place 
of principles and the core of the problem is ignored, 
confused, or lost sight of. 

In the meantime these empiricists are hunting in 
the " rubbish of the temple " (which temple they 
have metaphysically destroyed), for the Human 
Soul — i. e. the concrete, intrinsic Individual Intelli- 



6 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

gence, which is ONE, and which the Master Builder 
(Universal Intelligence) placed on the Trestle-board 
of Creation and Time, for the building of character, 
and the evolution of the Human Soul. 

If the Ideal, Archetypal, or Divine Man, is 
recognized as the Modulus of both Nature and 
Divinity, our Theorem must consist in adhering to 
the Modulus and working out the problem. 

Q. E. D., if applied to man's completion of his 
own individual Temple, might stand for the last 
words of Jesus, " It is finished," The problem is 
solved; " I have finished the Work Thou gavest me 
to do." Science, Religion and Philosophy have 
clasped hands. Divinity revealed in Humanity is 
triumphant over Death. " There is a Natural 
(physical) body and there is a Spiritual body," and 
the Individual Intelligence is ONE in each, or in 
both; viz.: The Human-Divine Soul. 

To recognize the Modulus and intelligently to 
apprehend the Theorem is the foundation and the 
first step in the scientific solution of the problem of 
life, and the progressive and continuous evolution of 
the human soul. To use the term " Science" (as 
applied to the study of psychology) in any other 
way, is pure empiricism, is wholly unscientific, and 
has never yet resulted in anything but confusion and 
in laying a foundation for belief, conjecture, theory, 
dogma, superstition, and fear. 

The step of next importance, both in the scientific 
study of psychology and in individual progress and 
evolution, is the mental attitude of the individual; 



FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, AND POWERS 7 

his point of view; his open-mindedness and utter re- 
fusal to prejudge anything. He will often say, " I 
do not know." He will sometimes say, " I do not 
care." That phase or presentation does not appeal 
to, nor interest him. 

This is what the Vedic philosophers called, " making 
the mind one pointed" and like a search-light, with 
the ability to concentrate it on a given point or 
subject. 

Bias, prejudice, preconceived opinion, credulity and 
incredulity, are all like a crooked lens to the 
eye of the mind, or to the perception of the simple 
truth. 

Not only are these principles basic in the scientific 
study of psychology and the evolution of the in- 
dividual intelligence, but their neglect and oversight 
are solely responsible for the confusion everywhere 
manifest on the subject, as well as for every form of 
subjective control, mediumship, psychical epidemics, 
and obsession, and they enter into every form and 
phase of insanity. 

If this be true, and it is readily demonstrable, what 
subject is of equal importance; and what facts and 
considerations are so transcendent as these? 

The difference is that between a mad-house with its 
frenzied and frightened mob of helpless victims, and 
a palace of the gods in which dwelleth Righteousness, 
Love, Peace, and Eternal Joy. 

Is it not worth while? 

This Modulus and Theorem of the School of 
Natural Science involve Religion, Regeneration, 



8 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

Redemption, and the well-being of Souls here and 
hereafter. 

They separate Religion from Superstition, Duty 
from Dogma, cast out Fear, release the wings of 
aspiration and faith; and where " the mourners went 
about the streets " is heard a new song of rejoicing 
that binds up the wounds and sorrows of the broken- 
hearted. 

Again I ask, "Is it not worth while? " 



CHAPTER II 
EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 

LET us bear in mind that man is an Individual 
J Intelligence; that this involves self -conscious- 
ness, or awareness of Self, the innate ability to 
distinguish between the Self and the non-Self. 
Hence arises the power of choice, discernment, or 
discrimination. 

There also arises the impulse to act,, or the In- 
itiative, called the Will. This also involves the 
power of restraint, the act or the refraining from 
action. 

This action, under the basic endowment — intelli- 
gence — is called Rational Volition. 

There is thus, Intelligence; the Power to choose; 
the power to act and the adaptation of acts or 
restraints to ends, or to desired objects or results. 

Experience teaches the individual, thus endowed, 
that he is responsible for all he thinks, feels, acts 
and does; and this, under his endowment of Intelli- 
gence, is what we call Conscience. 

We are not building up a theory, but simply 
analyzing psychological facts, demonstrated as true 
in the experience of every intelligent individual. 
Just as the chemist analyzes a compound he finds in 
his laboratory. 



10 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

Our Modulus is the Perfect Man. Our Theorem 
is the method of use that, by experience and observa- 
tion everywhere, has been demonstrated as Con- 
structive, enabling the Individual to build toward, 
and to realize the Modulus. 

The power to discriminate, choose and act, when 
normally exercised, implies judgment and under- 
standing. 

Hence, we have perception, rational choice, intelli- 
gent action and desired results, for which we recog- 
nize our personal responsibility. Hence arise our 
ability and necessity to review our actions, motives, 
aims and their results, and to pass judgment upon 
them in the Light of Conscience (Con-Science, to 
know the Self) to pass judgment upon ourselves 
as to motives, aims, results, and consequences. 

The Brain is a center of consciousness with ave- 
nues of perception and impulse and departments 
that by aggregation, separation or association, en- 
able the Individual Intelligence to determine the 
relation in time, or duration, force and orderly 
relation of perceptions, desires, motives, actions (or 
thoughts and feelings) as to sequence or results. 

This whole conscious realm is the Mind. It is 
the inner chamber of the Soul. It is in no sense 
an entity. The actor, the real entity, is the In- 
dividual Intelligence. 

To say, therefore, that " Man is all mind," or 
that the mind does this, or that, is simply nonsense. 
It is like saying that the little room in which I am 
now writing, with its books and pictures, with my 



EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 11 

thoughts, feelings, emotions, and magnetism, is It 
Perhaps it is like me, or full of me, but I am some- 
thing else and something more. 

Let us get rid of this " confusion of tongues" ; 
this "babel of Psychology"; "New Thought" (as 
old as man) ; " Metaphysics "; " Christian Science " 
et hoc genus omne, and come down to common sense 
and the facts of nature. The aim and the results 
along these lines are often good and helpful; then 
why clothe them in the garb of absurdities? 

Recognize the facts, and express them intelli- 
gently, and they may do ten times more good, for 
then we could understand them. They are, one and 
all, a weak dilution of the old Hindoo Yoga, 
thrashed over there for thousands of years; strain- 
ing after results, while ignorant of, or ignoring 
basic principles. 

Aside from the " Eight Systems of Philosophy " 
now recognized in India, there are hundreds of 
varieties and classes of Yogis. 

"To acquire powers" is one thing; self-mastery 
and self-knowledge are quite another. Thus the 
one is often distorted and always transient; the 
other constructive, regenerative, and enduring. 

To illustrate by contrast what Constructive Psy- 
chology, or the building of character, is not, we may 
now take some of the forms of diseased action 
known to all time, occurring in individuals and in 
epidemics, and which to-day fill our Insane Asylums 
with " Incurables." 

The point of first importance in all these cases, 



12 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

is the lack of self-control. Weakness, aberration 
or disease of the Will. The Individual Intelligence 
fails to exercise its divine prerogative and be 
Master in and of its own house. 

In the place of this control, sensations, feelings, 
emotions, desires, appetites, passions, and ambitions 
run riot. The Servants of the Master war among 
themselves, quarrel with each other, bind the Master 
hand and foot, wreck the furniture, and at last 
destroy the house. The Master has become the vic- 
tim and at last the slave of his own servants. His 
Will is in abeyance; his perceptions distorted; his 
feelings and emotions aggravated; his "Reason 
Dethroned"; his judgment impaired; he has an 
"Unbalanced Mind." 

What is here needed but Christos in the Temple, 
" turning over the tables of the money-changers and 
the seats of them that sold doves," and restoring the 
High-Priest in the Holy Temple — the Human 
Soul, viz.: the intelligent Will of Man, determined 
to govern his own house, and responsible for re- 
sults ? 

In place of Rational Volition, clear, just and 
true perceptions, sound judgment and clear under- 
standing, we have " Illusions," " Hallucinations " 
and " Delusions." In other words, the Individual 
is Insane! 

It all goes deeper than the Mind; the Soul, the 
Individual Intelligence is dethroned in his own 
Kingdom; Body, Mind, and Soul are out of joint. 

Not only does this condition exist without being 



EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 13 

recognized; not only just here lies the whole secret 
and field of Education in child, woman and man, 
but so ignorant are thousands as to these patent facts 
and basic principles, that they covet and strive 
after this confusion, this devolution, in the vain 
search for knowledge, light, and truth. 

These are the office, the function and the result 
to the subject (or victim) of Mediumship and 
Hypnotism. They yield the Will, the mastery of 
their own house, to another. 

The servants may be tractable for a while, but 
an alien is seated upon the throne, and the Master 
is no longer King in his own realm. 

Others may indeed learn something from his 
undoing, from the crimes committed upon him, just 
as we learn from criminals how we ought not to 
live. 

Whether ignorantly, voluntarily, by persuasion, 
or by force of a stronger will, the medium and the 
hypnotic subject are victims either of ignorance 
or of design, to their own undoing. 

These psychical experiences have been found in all 
ages and among every people of whom we have 
any valid history, from the red Indians of the 
North to the Voodoos of Africa, and from the Hill 
Tribes of India to the earliest Scandinavian Tribes 
and the islands of the sea. 

As civilizations advanced, the more intelligent and 
unscrupulous individuals, ambitious of knowledge or 
power, regardless of the rights or well-being of 
others, and discovering these powers, exercised them 



14 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

for their own aggrandizement. This has been 
known through the ages as Black Magic, and is 
laughed at to-day by so-called " Scientists " as 
" nothing but the fears, credulity, and superstitions 
of the ignorant multitude." This was the core of 
Egyptian Paganism, and is the very genius of 
Clericalism to-day — the domination of the Individual 
Will, through superstition and fear. 

Owing to seismic and cataclysmic shocks, volcanic 
eruptions, tidal waves, and great epidemics of dis- 
ease, whole peoples have been dominated by fear 
or frenzied by superstitious dread, so that whole 
villages and cities became literally " mad-houses," 
and were often depopulated. 

Read the story of " Peter, the Hermit," and " The 
Crusades," the "Black Death," the "Great 
Plague " that swept over Europe in the Thirteenth 
century; or that of the "Flagellants," and the 
" Dancing Mania," where whole villages became 
" Dancing Dervishes," samples of which may occa- 
sionally be found to-day in the cities of America, 
the " Yogis " that are " Buddhas " or " Christs " in 
New York, and the Dowies that were " Elijahs " 
in Chicago, the Genius of Point Loma, Obispo, 
Santa Rosa, " Oahspe," " Solar Biology," and 
again, et hoc genus omne! Verily ! " there is noth- 
ing new under the sun." 

Contrast these individuals with an individual of 
sound mind, good judgment, and a well-ordered 
life, and see how and where and why the wreck 
inevitably follows. 



EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 15 

The pressure outside changes continually, and 
these things spread and grow like all contagions. 
Nature at times seems wrathful and destructive, and 
there are, no doubt, deep-seated conditions and 
changes in the magnetism of the earth and air, not 
yet comprehended by modern science. 

In stamping out contagious and epidemic disease, 
simple cleanliness has been like a revelation from the 
gods, and modern surgery has only stopped short 
of the miraculous. 

Society is but the aggregation of individuals, and 
on the one principle of Self -Control every individual 
is related to the negative or the positive side of 
psychical and physical epidemics. 

There is scarcely an avenue along these lines that 
has not been more or less explored by modern 
science. 

That knowledge is still incomplete; that mis- 
takes have been made; that matters have been con- 
temptuously set aside, belittled, or declared to be 
not worth investigation, was to have been expected. 
But the progress has been immense, and the light 
shines on many obscure and difficult problems, where 
before was the utter darkness of superstition and 
fear, dirt, degradation, and death. 

These phenomena manifest on the physical plane, 
disturb the social state, and the relations of in- 
dividuals to each other. They concern the environ- 
ment of man in a world of matter, sense, and 
time. 

But the Individual Intelligence, which is Man, 



16 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

lives also in another world, related to, but within, 
around, and beyond the physical. 

Man senses or feels it as anterior to birth and 
extending beyond death. He calls it the subjective 
or Spiritual World. 

The realm of his consciousness is related to it, 
as the body is related to the physical plane and 
the things of sense and time. His consciousness 
seems aware of both planes or both worlds, though 
ignorant of the real nature and meaning of both, 
and capable of interpreting neither correctly. 

Man feels his way through the life on the outer 
plane guided by his experience of weight, measure, 
distance, resistance, and the like. 

The other world — the inner, or subjective — seems 
distant, evasive, and unreal, and in contemplating 
it he is filled with uncertainty, dread, fear, and 
superstition. 

Our friends die and disappear; we miss them, 
and mourn for them. Where are they? What 
will become of us when we die? Shall we ever 
meet them again? 

Passing by religion and revelation, as we are 
dealing with facts and phenomena in the natural 
life of man, rather than with creeds and dogmas that 
undertake to cut the " Gordian Knot," these ques- 
tions stare everyone in the face, and in every age 
man has tried to solve them by actual knowledge. 

Belief in ghosts, angels and demons is practically 
universal; and just here comes in the whole range 
of psychical phenomena, facts and fantasies, illu- 



EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 17 

sions, hallucinations and delusions, rational volition, 
reason dethroned, and the Will in Subjection, al- 
ready referred to. 

As individual experiences, subjective or objective, 
all are real. The fear incited by illusions and 
hallucination, or by " seeing a ghost," regardless 
of the fact of its actual existence, is as real to the 
individual as that of meeting a serpent in the grass, 
or a tiger in the jungle. 

Soothsayers, diviners, prophets, mediums, con- 
jurers, and seers consequently have been found in 
every age and among every people. Ignorance, 
fear, dread of death, desire to know, have always 
provided them with patrons, followers, or disciples. 

They have often reaped a rich harvest, and not 
unfrequently dominated a race or a people, as the 
Papacy does to-day. 

Where they have failed to create belief, they 
have often triumphed through fear and anathema, 
and often supplemented these weapons by persecu- 
tion, imprisonment, torture, and death, and so held 
sway. 

Revelation begs the question; dogma forces the 
conclusion; and both dominate the soul without 
convincing and without knowledge. 



CHAPTER III 
MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS 

INTO this arena of the inquiring soul of man, 
came Modern Spiritualism. 

It contained little or nothing new, as to methods, 
aims, or results. 

The Church, Protestant and Catholic alike, uttered 
their warnings, called it " dealings with the devil," 
but divested of political authority and without power 
■to arrest or persecute, as in the past, were unable 
to stay the tide. It swept the country like a 
whirlwind. The average individual, desiring to 
know and to get tidings from departed friends, was 
unrestrained and unterrified. 

He could not see why, if the gates were really 
ajar, angels might not communicate, no less than 
devils. 

Then came the cry of " fraud," often amply 
justified, and a cloud of uncertainty and unreliability 
settled over the phenomena generally. Unscrupulous 
men and women seeing their opportunity, sophisti- 
cated and exploited it, and " exposures " of these 
became common. 

But in spite of all this, there remained facts, 
and groups of phenomena impossible to explain 
away. 

18 



MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS 19 

Finally, men like Crookes and Wallace took up 
the subject and investigated the phenomena, not 
from the emotional, expectant, or fraternal aspect, 
but from the purely scientific, and rendered their 
verdict, which, though frequently ignored or treated 
with contempt, remains practically unaltered. 

Thousands became convinced of the fact of life 
beyond the grave, and at the same time of the 
unreliability of many so-called " communications." 
Finally the " Society for Psychical Research " was 
formed; phenomena were searchingly examined, 
verified, and recorded as a basis for further research. 

The posthumous work of F. W. H. Myers, 
" Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily 
Death," added to the Society's records and many 
other publications a record of verified facts in 
psychic phenomena such as never before existed, 
and which nothing short of a cataclysm can destroy. 

In the meantime, the " dark circle " went into 
desuetude, and Spiritualism, as a cult, declined. 
Accepting the broad conclusion of a life after death, 
and with no very clear demonstration as to exactly 
where, or how, the case rested largely. 

The reason for this obscurity was to be found 
in the absence of clear conceptions as to the nature 
of the human soul, and what life on the spiritual 
plane really signifies. 

In other words, the foundation was laid empiri- 
cally to await classification and conclusions in a 
comprehensive Philosophy of Psychology, consistent 
with a science of the soul; and there it remains 



20 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

to-day with the average individual, and the average 
man of physical or psychical science. 

Returning now from this brief excursion into the 
social status, to the problem as related to the mental, 
moral, and physical health of individuals, and bear- 
ing in mind our Modulus of Man, and Theorem of 
Constructive Psychology, we find the annals of 
Spiritualism, Mediumship, or subjective control, 
of exceeding importance. 

Another plane of life exists. Individuals on 
either plane communicate with the controlling entity 
on the supra-physical plane. 

The Medium is invariably subjective and con- 
trolled. He has no choice of controls, and often no 
knowledge (never reliable knowledge) as to who 
or what controls him. He is sometimes informed 
by his " guide " as to the control's identity, and 
learns, often, that he and his circle have been 
deceived by ignorant or " lying spirits." 

The whole process reverses our Modulus and 
Theorem of Constructive Psychology, the building 
of character and normal evolution. 

The most important consideration at this point 
is its relation to the sanity of individuals. 

There are thousands of individuals to-day, who, 
failing in rational volition, or self-control, are con- 
trolled by entities on the subjective plane. They 
are obsessed. 

This subjective control without the knowledge or 
consent of the victim, and unrecognized and gen- 
erally called " absurd " hj " Alienists " and " ex- 



MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS 21 

perts," constitutes a very large per cent, of the 
insane to-day; and because ignored or unrecognized, 
these cases are classed as " Incurable." 

It should be remembered that the annals of 
Spiritualism, and the records of scientific Psychical 
Research, have demonstrated the possibility and the 
fact of such control. It should also be remembered 
that the average " expert alienist " is guided solely 
by results of such obsession, where it occurs; that 
he is blind to causes, liable to exclude or taboo ob- 
session, and therefore largely liable to err. 

In other words, he is prejudiced; and his bias 
and incredulity blind him to the facts and to the 
real causes. 

He could hardly be expected to make the obses- 
sion let go, while denying that it exists. But he 
might help the victim gain Self-control if he but 
recognized the facts and knew how. 

Realizing the fact of the connection of the two 
worlds, the physical and the spiritual, and com- 
munication between them in the subjective or irre- 
sponsible way, the question naturally arises, " Is 
there not another way of communication? May not 
the Individual Intelligence on the physical plane 
communicate with the denizens of the spiritual 
plane at his own volition, independently? May he 
not learn to see and hear them without attempting, or 
desiring to control them, more than he does his 
associates, his friends and neighbors on the physical 
plane, or allowing them to control him? " 

Is it not purely a question of fact, and of scien- 



22 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

tific demonstration, to be determined by experiment? 

This question leads us to another phase of psy- 
chology and the records of the past. There have 
been Seers, Clairvoyants, and Clair audiants in all 
ages. 

Unlike the psychical phenomena already referred 
to, — and belonging to the positive and initiative, 
rather than the negative and subjective side of 
the psychical equation, — these seers have been fewer 
in number, and are always individuals showing a 
high degree of self-control, and of intellectual and 
moral evolution. 

Admitting the general propositions involved, it 
can readily be seen that this must be so from the 
very nature of the case. The Masters of mankind, 
in any and all directions have been few. The 
slaves, through ignorance, superstition and fear, 
have been legions. Those who have gained habitual 
self-control, and finally self-mastery, knowledge 
and power, have been few; while the majority have 
been controlled by their own appetites and passions, 
and by other individuals. 

This self-mastery and higher evolution also in- 
cludes another element beside strength of character, 
and that is, Refinement. 

In other words; it is, from first to last, a journey 
from the gross and sensuous physical plane, toward 
the refined and spiritual plane, involving all the 
faculties, capacities, and powers, feelings, sensations, 
emotions, intuitions, and aspirations of man. It 
is, in short, a normal, higher evolution, 



MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS 23 

All the elements of this higher evolution are basic 
and innate in the original endowment of man. By 
exercise, the latent faculties, capacities and powers 
grow, expand, and devolop. Self-control, rational 
volition, and the sense of personal responsibility, 
(conscience) make the evolution conformatory to the 
Modulus — the Perfect Man. 

As this human being, dwelling on the physical 
plane, evolves, the spiritual faculties of the Divine 
Man are involved from the spiritual plane. When 
this simultaneous and co-ordinate development is 
complete, the Human and the Divine are at-one 
in the Individual. 

This at-one-ment is the exact opposite of " vica- 
rious." It is the result of personal effort and self- 
mastery. 

The dogma of the church has so completely so- 
phisticated it as to turn normal evolution into 
devolution; and, so far as it has any effect, or is 
operative at all, to turn man backward toward the 
animal, instead of upward toward the Divine. 

Seership and Spiritual powers, therefore, as the 
result of " Living the Life," are Evolutionary. 
Mediumship, subjective control, and obsession in 
any form, or in whatsoever degree, are Devolu- 
tionary. 

Progress along either line may be very slow, but 
the trend is as opposite as is the East from the 
West, as Light from Darkness, as Good from Evil. 

By classifying these powers of man and psychical 
phenomena to which they give rise, whether in the 



24 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

conscious, inner realm, in functions of the bodily 
organism, or observable to others, we are able to 
assign each to its proper class with considerable 
accuracy. 

Both evolutionary and devolutionary progress, 
with the ordinary individual, are slow processes. 
Seldom is either process a designed and straight- 
forward climbing, or a quick descent " into the dark 
abyss." 

Consequently, as the human race evolves as a whole, 
relatively more and more individuals are found who 
" get flashes " of sight or sound, more or less from 
the subjective or spiritual plane of being. There 
are intuitions, " warnings," and premonitions of 
coming events. Some seek and cultivate, others 
fear and avoid them. 

They are mostly on the " border-land," if not on 
the " ragged-edge " of insanity. It is only necessary 
to further weaken the will, or to indulge the pas- 
sions and emotions, in order to decide the matter, 
derange the mind, and send the individual to an 
asylum. 

On the other hand, with individuals who lead a 
clean, cheerful, well-ordered life, these experiences 
may mean encouragement, confirmation, and prog- 
ress toward the spiritual realm of being. They 
should be observed carefully, but not cultivated. 
They may serve as guide-posts and as mere inci- 
dents of a day's journey. 

The average popular cult to-day, as often in the 
past, where psychical phenomena are involved, re- 






MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS 25 

suits in converting the normal mental realm, the 
realm of normal self-consciousness, into a vaude- 
ville performance; a mere "Variety Show," where 
all due sense of proportion and relation is lost. 

In place of the normal Individual Intelligence, 
sitting serenely on the throne of life and ruling his 
Kingdom with justice, wisdom and paternal love, 
the king joins the melee of acrobats and dancing 
girls, encourages the orchestra till, in a pandemo- 
nium of revelry, he puts out the lights, or in wild 
frenzy fires the building. 

Sometimes it claims to " command success " by 
demanding it; or wealth without earning it; or 
health without regard to hygienic law; or by " taking 
a Mantram " to open the gates of heaven. Or 
again, by servile obedience to the freaks or dogmas 
of a " Leader " or " Official Head " and adulation 
ad nauseam, to gain admission to the " Elect." 

One and all of these, from first to last, tend 
toward Devolution. They are destructive, not con- 
structive, in building character and true manhood 
and womanhood. 

Again, the Monk or the devotee abandons society, 
becomes a recluse, flees into the desert or the 
mountain, subsists upon roots or herbs, sits in one 
posture till the joints of the body become fixed, 
holds the arms above the head till they become im- 
movable, and the finger nails turn and grow through 
the palms of the hands; or sits gazing at the navel 
and repeating the word Om. 

Indeed, it would seem that the ways and means 



26 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

to stop normal growth, constructive evolution and 
healthy living, had been well-nigh exhausted. 

The enthusiast, the fanatic and the " easy mark " 
of to-day are seldom aware of any of these things, 
and so they are bled, fleeced, and exploited accord- 
ingly. "All is Mind!" "Great is Elijah!" or 
"Mrs." Elijah, and Oahspe is his Prophet! while 
Babel reigns in the place of Natural Science. 

The Theosophical Movement inaugurated in 
this country by H. P. Blavatsky in 1875, differed 
essentially and radically from all others; first, in 
placing ethics as the first stone in the foundation of 
a real knowledge of the nature of man. Its objects 
as concisely stated at the time were — 

First: To establish a nucleus for a Universal 
Brotherhood of Man. 

Second: To study ancient religions, philosophies 
and sciences, and determine their relations and 
values. 

Third: To investigate the Psychical Powers latent 
in Man. 

Hospitality to Truth from any source and under 
any name, was characteristic of the movement during 
the entire lifetime of the Founders. 

Dogma was eliminated, Authority beyond facts 
and demonstrated truth denied, and Superstition 
regarded as only another name for ignorance. 

While the facts and the demonstrations of 
Science were recognized, and given the largest hos- 
pitality, nevertheless, the " Secret Doctrine " and, 
in a broad sense, the whole movement was an effort 



MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS 27 

to present to modern times, and particularly to the 
Western world, the most ancient and pure phi- 
losophy of old India, the Vedanta or " Wisdom- 
Religion." 

An immense work of rejuvenation has gone on 
in India, particularly in the establishment and 
maintenance of Schools for Girls, and in the relief 
of poverty and discouragement of the teeming 
millions. 

An immense literature was created, not yet appre- 
ciated, except by students here and there, who found 
light, explanation, and encouragement in their 
studies of the mysteries of Nature and of life. 

Since the death of the founders of the Society, in 
this country at least, only a few branches and 
fragments of the original organization now remain. 

"Leaders" and "Official Heads" often wholly 
ignorant of the Philosophy, which colossal egotism 
and exploitation could hardly supply, have brought 
the very names " Theosophy " and " Brotherhood " 
into contempt and ridicule in many sections. 

As some of these " official heads " are still in 
evidence, final results cannot now be formulated, 
and need not be here considered or forecast. The 
evidence is not all in. 

Personally, I desire to record my great indebted- 
ness and highest appreciation of a noble life and a 
magnificent work accomplished by one of the most 
remarkable and unselfish women known to history, 
and for the light and knowledge which she made 
accessible, and which I still hold, practically un- 



28 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

changed, but with the theorems of Natural Science, 
in place of the postulates of Philosophy as better 
fitting " the progressive intelligence " of the present 
time. 

The two lines of presentation when clearly appre- 
hended are not antagonistic, but supplementary. 
Their aims and purpose are the same. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE MEASURE OF VALUES 

THIS is a very utilitarian age. Start almost any 
subject, propose almost any scheme, adventure, 
or investment, and the question is asked, " Will it 
pay?" The multitude are cautious; the lower 
stratum, the unsuccessful — the poor and the op- 
pressed — are envious and often bitter and resentful; 
the successful are often reckless, dissipated, and 
proud. 

I am not writing an essay on Economics, but on 
Ethics and Psychology; on the character, value, and 
use of the resources within ourselves; our real pos- 
sessions. Here only may be found actual values. 

I am not considering the " hereafter," as to 
"rewards and punishments"; what gods, devils, 
angels, or men may do to us, here or hereafter; but 
what we may (if we choose) do for ourselves. 

This question is practical to the last degree. 
Put the question, "does it pay?" and I answer: 
It pays like nothing else on earth; it is the only 
thing that is independent of time, place, or circum- 
stance. 

It concerns man's actual possessions, of which 
nothing in " the three worlds " can ever dispossess 
him. I know of nothing so beneficent, in any 

29 



SO STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

concept of God or Nature, Providence or Destiny, 
as this birthright and opportunity of man, to build 
character, and be what he chooses to be. 

He who knows his power, realizes his opportunity 
and utilizes his resources, may build a Palace of 
the Soul, in which he may dwell, literally, in a 
" kingdom of heaven." And because God is the 
Architect, and Man the Contractor and Builder, 
working strictly to the " plans " and the designs, 
" that house shall stand." It is founded on the 
" Rock of Ages." 

Did anyone ever know or see a noble character 
that was not built by the Individual himself, by 
personal effort, by self-control, by self-denial, by 
justice and kindness to others; often in the face of 
Poverty; often in spite of wealth; often in the face 
of sickness, pain and deformity; perhaps deaf and 
dumb and blind; and yet, like Helen Keller, the 
soul triumphant and glorified? 

To-day, as I write, I went to the Crematory to 
see the dissolution of a poor, twisted, deformed, and 
tortured body of a woman past fifty, in which had 
dwelt a soul so serene, cheerful, and patient, that 
the beatitudes clustered around her, like doves in a 
garden of roses. It required no stretch of the 
imagination to determine what society she had 
entered. " Like seeks like," and each " goes to his 
own place." Her motive, the day-star of her life, 
was the Mother-Love for an only son. In spite 
of poverty and pain, she must reward him for love 
and loyalty, by being bright and cheerful and by 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES 31 

belittling her own discomfort to save him sor- 
row. 

Her reward was the growth of the soul that has 
now risen to its great reward, and dearer and 
sweeter than all this to the Mother-heart, was to 
see and realize the growth, the tenderness, and the 
beautifying of the soul of the Son. 

Did it pay? I can almost hear her shouting for 
joy as she joins the anthem of the Invisible Choir 
of Helpers that welcome her just over the border. 
She prayed many times, even the last time I saw 
her, before the great change, "If it be possible, 
let this cup pass from me." I could only say, " Wait 
just a little longer," with the assurance that every 
shadow of darkness shall be transformed into daz- 
zling light, and every drop of bitterness into the 
nectar of the Gods. She was almost deaf and 
blind, but you should have heard the sweetness in 
her voice and seen the radiance in her face. I did 
not know that the end was so near. 

To the son, the sweetest sound on earth was that 
mother's voice, but, though silent for a thousand 
years, he would not recall her to one moment of 
the old torture. His sorrow for himself is swallowed 
up and glorified in his joy for her release. 

And what is all this but a lesson in practical 
psychology, the growth of the soul? 

Does it pay? Ask that Mother; ask that Son 
now. "How do you know?" How do you know 
anything, except as you see, or experience it? 

Character reveals itself. It cannot long hide it- 



32 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

self. When the check goes to the bank the re- 
sources are there. The Bank of God, and of 
Nature, and of Compensation, and Eternal Justice, 
cannot fail. Its resources are infinite. 

Independent of time, place, or circumstance, I 
said: Intrinsic, Inalienable. 

Take another illustration almost at random. A 
cultured soul, winning its way alone, and at great 
disadvantage. 

In the middle of the tenth century lived Farabi, 
or Alfarabi. He did not confine himself to the 
Koran, but fathomed the most useful and interesting 
sciences. He visited Sifah Doulet, the Sultan of 
Syria. The Sultan was surrounded by the learned 
who were conversing with him on the sciences. 

Farabi entered the salon where they were as- 
sembled and remained standing till the Emperor 
desired that he should be seated; at which the phi- 
losopher, by a freedom rather astonishing, went and 
sat on the end of the Sultan's sofa. The Prince, 
surprised at his boldness, called one of his officers 
and commanded him, in a tongue not generally 
known, to put out the intruder. The philosopher 
heard him, and replied in the same tongue, " O 
Signor! he who acts so hastily is subject to repent." 
The Prince was no less astonished by his reply than 
by his manner and assurance. 

Wishing to know more of him, he began a con- 
ference among his philosophers, in which Farabi 
disputed with so much eloquence and energy that 
he reduced all the doctors to silence. Then the 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES S3 

Sultan ordered music, and when the musicians en- 
tered, Farabi accompanied them upon the lute with 
so much delicacy as to win the admiration of all 
present. He then drew out, at the Sultan's request, 
a piece of his own composition, and sang it with his 
own accompaniment, and had the audience first 
in laughter, and then in tears — and to complete 
his Magic, changed to another piece and put them all 
asleep. 

The Sultan in vain urged Farabi to remain near 
his person, and offered him a high position in his 
household. 

Voluminous writings of Farabi are preserved in 
the library at Leyden. 

" A tale of the Arabian Nights," you may say, 
and yet it is historic. It reveals the fact that re- 
sources, character, and wisdom, in the end triumph 
and surmount all obstacles. They are intrinsic and 
permanent values. 

They may remain unknown or unappreciated by 
others, but they are none the less riches to him who 
possesses them. 

It was during this same tenth century in which 
Alfarabi lived, that there existed at Baghdad a 
Society composed of Mohammedans, Jews, Chris- 
tians, and Atheists, for the purpose of Philosophical 
discussions and scientific investigation; and it was 
doubtless under this influence that Alfarabi was 
educated and enabled to cope with the philosophers 
of the world. Here in Arabia was the highest cul- 
ture known at the time, in Medicine and all the 



34 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

Arts and Sciences, while the Ecclesiastics were 
inaugurating the dark ages elsewhere, to eventually 
spread over the whole of Europe. 

Here and there have always appeared individuals 
superior to their age and time; men who dug to 
the foundations of knowledge, built character, ac- 
cumulated resources, and left their impress upon 
all subsequent time. 

Nor has this accumulation of real knowledge been 
derived from books and schools, though these re- 
sources have not been neglected. 

Real culture of the Individual has always con- 
sisted in the realization of the latent powers of 
man, in bringing these to light, in learning by ex- 
perience how to use them. Hence arise self-knowl- 
edge, self-control, and a higher evolution. 

It is not a mere technical, intellectual acquirement, 
the ability to define principles and formulate 
propositions. It rather consists in testing them out 
in actual experience; first by self -analysis to become 
familiar with the real self, its capacities and powers, 
its motives and aims in life; and having grasped and 
adjusted all these, then to start consciously, de- 
liberately, determinedly, and intelligently, on " the 
road to the South," on the upward climb toward 
the Light. 

" Possessions," with the great majority of in- 
dividuals, mean something outward, in space and 
time; what we have, and, for the time hold, rather 
than what we are. The average idea of enjoyment 
is something altogether superficial and transient. It 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES 35 

is found, or supposed to be found, in variety of 
sensations, emotions and feelings; in ringing the 
changes on these, till vitality fails, disillusion or 
satiety supervenes, and old age or death closes the 
play. Often the appetite remains, when vitality 
fails, and Faust rejuvenated, would run the same 
gauntlet again. The pity of it is that thousands of 
these victims of either satiety or Tantalus seem 
never to dream that there are other values, or any- 
thing else, or better, in life. 

And yet there is not one of these faculties, 
capacities and powers that is useless, or, in itself, 
evil or degrading. They are, one and all, resources 
of the Individual Intelligence; tools for the day's 
work; materials for the building of the Temple; 
whereas, they most frequently are made the motive 
and the aim of life. They are means to a higher 
end, and not the end itself. 

Without the latent passions, emotions, and feel- 
ings, man would be a mere mechanism. If all 
were mind, or mere intellect, there could be neither 
the creation nor the appreciation of beauty. Every 
work of art would be soulless; music might amuse 
the intellect by intricate chords and variations, like 
a colorless kaleidoscope, but it could never touch 
the heart nor elevate the soul. 

Music and art, in the highest sense, through 
consonant vibrations in us, open the doors and win- 
dows of the soul, put us in touch and tune with 
the Infinite, and then, the real harmony begins. 
We live for the time in another world and return 



36 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

with a sigh and recover the bated breath, as though 
we had seen a vision beyond words. Music is an 
agent, a talisman, a means to an end. It strikes 
in us chords that lie at the foundation, the com- 
binations that unlock the doors, and the " Im- 
prisoned Splendor " wings in and out like the 
doves of Hesperides. 

Blunt the passions, the feelings and the emotions 
by over-indulgence, by vice and dissipation, and the 
royal guests desert the banquet hall, the doors of 
the soul creak on their hinges; and in place of the 
" music of the spheres " you have a devil's dance, 
and the orgies of despair! 

Does it pay? It all depends on use. Here lie 
the resources, the real possessions of man. Here 
lies the " Parable of the Talents." 

Look at the profusion, the prodigality, the 
beneficence of Nature, Flowers and Fruit, Beauty 
and Bloom and Fragrance everywhere. Where 
there is no eye to see, no hand to pluck, Mother 
Nature delights in profusion, seemingly because 
she is made that way and cannot help it. And yet, 
in this little Rose-garden of ours — the Human Soul 
— we tramp down the flowers, plant loathsome 
weeds and poisons that kill and degrade and besot 
us, set up the tables of the money-changers, drive 
out the doves of Hesperides, and turn the temple 
into a shambles for wild beasts. " Nothing pays." 
"Let us curse God and — die!" 

Is there not something after all in the Measure 
of Values, and in the inexorable Law of Use? 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES 37 

And who constrains us but ourselves? 

Can God and Nature be so prodigal, noting 
even the sparrows fall, and yet disregard the chil- 
dren of men? 

What our resources are we can never imagine 
till we draw upon and begin to utilize them as 
others have done throughout the ages. 

The " average sinner," seemingly to justify or 
excuse his own failure, will not believe that any 
have ever achieved. But there they stand all down 
the ages! Ecclesiastics help the deception and 
keep up the illusion by calling it Miracle, or 
" Special Providence," and so prevent man from 
entering his birthright, to possess it; and so we 
sell our birthright for a mess of pottage. It is like 
the dissipated, poverty-stricken spendthrift, who 
shuts his eyes and refuses to believe that any, by 
industry, economy, integrity and hard work have 
secured a competency. And so he cries, " Come on, 
boys! let's have another drink, and then rob this 
bond-holder, who has more than his share." 

The Measure of Values, and the Law of Use 
hold everywhere, in every department of human 
life; and the question, "Does it pay?" is practical 
and scientific to the last degree, and no one can 
answer but ourselves. As we answer will be the 
results, and nothing but ourselves can change them. 

We must realize that the human body, the or- 
ganism of man, with all its faculties, capacities and 
powers, is but an instrument of the Individual In- 
telligence; and that every experience in life, every 



38 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

episode in our career, is like a day's work; perfect- 
ing the instrument for more and better work, if 
used rightly; till we advance from height to height 
of being; to larger and still larger and more glorious 
fields of work and experience. 

There would seem to be no limit to this evolution, 
this upward and onward journey of the human soul. 
The more good work done, the larger the capacity 
and the broader the field opening before us. " From 
height to height the spirit walks." 

The primary endowment of man is Life and con- 
scious Intelligence, with the power to use both. 

This would seem to be the only gratuity, and 
whether we regard it as a blessing or a curse, 
depends on how we regard and use them. 

The great majority in all time, through igno- 
rance or recklessness, seem to have misused them. 

Hence sickness, disease, deformity, and degrada- 
tion. 

It is a wonderful thing — this Law of Normal 
Use — from which health, harmony, comfort, joy, 
growth, and development result, while misuse and 
abuse degrade and destroy. 

Divinity seems to have put within the grasp of 
man's Intelligence (if he chooses and wills) an al- 
most infinite range in power, variety and application, 
of that subtle and basic Principle of affinity, balance 
and equilibrium, that unites the atoms in a mole- 
cule, or a chemical substance; that law of attrac- 
tion and repulsion — the Parallelogram of Force — 
that holds the planets in their orbits. Divinity 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES 39 

seems to have taken man into council and offered 
him, not only the Kingdom of Nature, but the 
royal domain of his own soul, as a reward for 
co-operation and loyal service, on condition that 
he shall use wisely, intelligently, loyally, and kindly, 
and not misuse or abuse. 

Is it worth while? Will it pay? 

Nor is this all, beneficent as it seems. The 
whole journey of life on the physical plane here 
below is so designed and planned as to make the 
natural aging and decay of the physical body 
supplement, unfold and develop the Spiritual Body, 
through the right use of the faculties, capacities, and 
powers of the Human Soul — the Individual In- 
telligence. 

These are aspects, uses and powers of that 
subtle something we call Life; that Principle that 

"Runs through all time, extends through all extent, 
Lives undivided, operates unspent." 

Normal use that insures growth and develop- 
ment, range and power of action, is also, from 
first to last, a refining process; while misuse and 
abuse of these powers degrade and brutalize 
inevitably. 

It follows, therefore, as the bodily structure 
and functions fail under normal use those of the 
spiritual body open, develop and unfold. First 
the seed, then the plant, then the flower and finally 
the fruit "of a well-spent life." 

There is no " theory " or " guess-work " about 



40 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

it. It becomes, step by step, a matter of con- 
scious, intelligent, individual experience. We 
know it just as we know that fire will burn or that 
we are here now, living, breathing, and acting. 

If I thrust my finger into a flame, all the phi- 
losophers and metaphysicians of the world could 
not " argue " me out of the experience of the 
fact of " burn " and " pain " ; nor could theologians 
succeed any better by quotations from Scripture! 
Man is so constituted that the facts of experience 
are stubborn things; and the more open to reason 
the individual the more convincing the facts of 
experience. Ignorance, superstition, and fear re- 
cede in the presence of these Lights of man's 
intelligence, as do dogma and despotism, that 
seek to enslave the human soul. 

Theologians tell us that it is exceeding danger- 
ous to take all this responsibility upon ourselves, 
thus appealing to ignorance, superstition, and fear. 

I would answer: I refuse to take the responsi- 
bility of disregarding or disobeying the Law which 
the Divine and Universal Intelligence has placed 
at the very foundation of man's being ; and I am 
so zmorthodox as to imagine and believe that God 
knew what he was about, even better than the 
theologians, or the " Infallible " Italian who mis- 
interprets God, Nature, and Man. 

To-day, as I write, " God's Vicegerent " is in- 
stigating and promoting a " Holy War " in Priest- 
ridden Spain, over the temporal power of the 
Vatican, angered to the point of murder over the 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES 41 

" posting of notices of places of public worship," 
other than Catholic. 

They would rather turn the world into one 
" City of the Dead," than yield one point of 
Freedom, Enlightenment, or Self-government to 
man. 

And men still call this Religion, and cast aside 
the crucifix for the sword, the gun and the fire- 
brand. The Inferno has never yet been portrayed 
or even outlined. Its name is Priestcraft and 
Intolerance under the name of " Religion." 

And is this a " Study in Psychology " ? Yea, 
verily! Scientific Psychology is the only thing 
that goes to the very bottom of it, and defines 
and classifies every element, every fact in human 
experience. Man cannot build a home on a piece 
of ground where a slaughter-house disputes every 
square yard of ground with the tombstones of 
a graveyard. Clericalism is ever the one or the 
other, and frequently both; denying to man the 
right to build a home for himself anywhere, except 
by its permission and according to its plans and 
specifications, fixing the rent and the revenues for 
all future time. 

The Premier of Spain to-day is disputing this 
prerogative of Rome, and the graveyard has been 
thrown open. The pity, the marvel of it all is, 
that the people generally do not seem to care, and 
call any statement of facts " sensational " or 
" panicky." 
j I am told by some very good people that these 



42 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

references to Popery seem irrelevant, and by- 
others, that they mar the symmetry of my essay. 

They are reminded that we are dealing with 
real and permanent values, and with what man 
may do and ought to do for himself. 

Lying squarely across this upward pathway of 
man, to be pursued by free choice and personal 
effort, is the dogma of the Vicarious Atone- 
ment and the forgiveness of sin, of which 
" His Holiness " claims to hold the exclusive 
agency. 

Through appeal to superstition and fear this 
preposterous and sacrilegious claim to-day, as in all 
the past, paralyzes the will and discourages the 
personal efforts of millions of men and women. 
Between that blind credulity which makes personal 
effort unnecessary, and the miracle and dogma 
which make it seem useless, the upward and onward 
march of man is hindered or annulled, notwith- 
standing the fact that many men and women lead 
noble lives who are yet communicants of the 
Church, both Catholic and Protestant. True, they 
may, with little thinking, reason and reflection 
from early education and " lip-service," give in- 
tellectual assent to these dogmas. But the lives 
they lead and the personal effort put forth prove 
them " better than their creeds." They say with 
the lips, " Christ has forgiven us," or " Jesus will 
save us," and while they are saying these things 
they go to work saving themselves by " leading 
the life " through personal effort and experience. 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES 43 

In other words, they " save themselves " in spite 
of their creeds and superstitions. 

It is, therefore, with this exact " measure of 
values," that we are dealing; and the necessity 
and value of these considerations are nowhere so 
plain to-day, or so imperative, as just here, in 
the face of these demoralizing dogmas and pre- 
tensions of men, who contradict all natural law 
and steal unblushingly the prerogatives of God, 
as his " Vicegerent." The marvel of it is that it 
excites neither surprise nor protest, but is treated 
with a smile of good-natured complacency out- 
side its circle of dupes. 

He who treats it seriously, as a thing that, more 
than any other, demoralizes, discourages and 
paralyzes millions, is regarded as " sensational," 
" emotional," or an " alarmist." 

In the face of all the facts, of which the daily 
papers are full, and the record of the Vatican 
crowded, I prefer that my own arraignment shall 
stand. No one who knows half these facts can 
dispute or gainsay them. We are making history 
here to-day, as mankind has had to make it in all 
the past, in the face of these " Lions in the path " 
of civilization and progress. 

If I must choose between being superficial, 
ignorant and insincere, or being an " alarmist," I 
certainly and unhesitatingly choose to be an 
alarmist! The strongest ally of Superstition to-day 
is credulity, or indifference. The average man 
says, "I do not believe there is any danger"; and 



44 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

if he " spoke his heart " would add, " if there is, 
I do not care/ 3 

I would only reply, " If you mean to be honest, 
read, observe, and see." You may wait too long. 
Spain and Portugal are just awakening from the 
priest-ridden lethargy of centuries, and are making 
history anew. May a just God and all the angels 
help and protect them. 

The great daily newspapers of the country are 
very conservative wherever Rome is concerned. 
She is too powerful and her resources too well 
organized and available to be disregarded. 

It is therefore very significant that an editorial 
in one of the largest and most influential of these 
papers to-day gives a clear, concise, and impartial 
epitome of the "Row in Spain/' clearly locating 
its cause and animus in the Vatican, and showing 
how unbearable this tyranny and exploitation had 
become to a large portion of the people of Spain. 

I refer to this here for a special purpose, which 
involves and lies at the foundation of all other 
issues and considerations. And that is the state- 
ment in this editorial, that while the Church of 
Rome has held practically undisputed sway in 
Spain for centuries, with immense tracts of land, 
houses and revenues, independent of civil authority, 
with 20,000 priests, 5,000 communities with 60,000 
inmates in a population of only 20,000,000 of 
people — Seventy per cent, of the people are entirely 
uneducated. With every opportunity, plenty of 
time and almost boundless resources, Rome has 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES 45 

kept the people in ignorance, the easier to rob 
them; determined to own the land, the resources, 
and the people — body and soul — as the Autocrat 
of heaven and earth! A slavery in the name of 
" Religion " found nowhere else on earth to-day. 

So much for Spain and the Vatican to-day. For 
the sequel, watch the daily papers. 

And what has this to do with America? With 
Psychology? With the Measure of Values? 

Simply this: Is anyone so dense as to suppose 
that the Seventy per cent, of dense ignorance in 
Spain is an accident, or an oversight of the Vatican 
and its servants? There lie the "policy" and the 
secret of the power of Home. 

In America our foundations, our bulwarks, and 
our hope and security of Freedom, Enlightenment, 
and Progress lie in our Free Public Schools. These 
Rome hates, condemns as " Godless," and would 
destroy if she could, as continually proved by the 
letters and edicts of the Popes. 

Seeing, however, that she cannot do this, and 
fearful of losing her hold on her thirteen or four- 
teen million of communicants in America, she. 
rushes the building of Parochial Schools, and 
threatens her people with dire penalties who 
patronize any other. Since she cannot prevent 
education here, as in Spain, she must " educate " 
in her own way, in order to retain her power over 
the rising generation. The basis of this education 
are ignorance, superstition, and fear; its crown, the 
slavery of conscience and the " Dogma of Obedi- 



46 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

ence." The brutality of Ignorance in Spain is 
the sophistry of Priestcraft under the name of 
" Religion," in America. 

The Genius of the Vatican is " Infallibility." 
It not only never errs, but it never changes. It 
dons another mask, adopts another slogan, and is 
now engaged in a great crusade to educate! 

Constructive Psychology, the building of In- 
dividual Character, means the precise opposite of 
every principle, proposition, and practice of Popery. 
I desire to make this plain and unmistakable. 

Nothing on earth transcends in importance this 
basic, universal, and eternal antithesis. It marks 
and monuments, in all time, the Parting of the 
Ways between Good and Evil; between Liberty 
and Despotism; between Light and Darkness; be- 
tween Evolution and Devolution; between "Mod- 
ernism" and Paganism; between Civilization and 
the Dark Ages; between the " Sermon on the 
Mount " — the Beatitudes, and the Spanish Roman 
Vatican Inquisition! 

And this " antithesis," this issue, is as imminent, 
as active, as burning in America to-day, as it is in 
Spain. It only faces different ways. 

Spain is compelled to redeem her past; America 
to guard and protect her future. 

It is, from first to last, a Psychological Problem. 

It is an analysis by fire, in the crucible of fate 
and destiny, to determine accurately the measure 
of values to the Individual, to Society, and to 
Civilization. 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES 47 

No man, woman or child, no society, no civiliza- 
tion ever has, or ever can, escape this issue. 

It is the design on the trestle-board of Time. 

It is the Modulus of both God and Nature 
regarding Man. 

It is the Theorem of Psychology. 

It involves the Evolution and Destiny of the 
Human Soul. 

As civilization in many places showed an advanc- 
ing tendency from the darkness, despotism and 
brutality of the Dark Ages, the " Robber Barons " 
began to disappear. Their slogan was, " He may 
seize who hath the power and he may hold who 
can." Serfdom also began slowly to recede. 
Popery and Priestcraft assumed the role of these 
Barons, changed the slogan from brute force (re- 
serving that for emergencies) to " Divine Preroga- 
tive," "Infallibility" (later), and pagan mum- 
meries in the name of " Religion." 

The result, to the common people, remained un- 
changed to the present day — poverty, ignorance, 
and oppression. 

Popery boasts that it never changes, never re- 
lents, nor forgives an enemy, nor forgets an injury, 
nor fails to " get even," like any brute, whenever 
she can. And this Power is not only the assumed 
custodian of the religion of Jesus, but stands in the 
place of it, as a substitute, and the world tolerates 
it in the name of Religion! 

As a problem m Psychology, we have been con- 
sidering the nature, use, and measure of values 



48 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

of the resources, faculties, capacities, and powers 
of man as an Individual Intelligence. 

Facing opportunities, we have seen that there is 
a Law of Use and Responsibility which cannot 
be evaded. 

Institutions and societies of men are, one and 
all, from first to last, under the same law. It is 
simply an aggregate, into which not a new prin- 
ciple enters, nor one principle is changed. The 
recognized and scientifically determined value of 
man to himself, is the measure of his value to the 
State. 

The reverse proposition is equally true. 

The value of any Institution to the individual, 
or to the State, must be measured and determined 
in the same way and under the same law. 

It may thus be seen that Institutions, like 
Popery, are deeply involved in this Law of Use and 
Measure of Values. This is simply making use 
of, and putting in practice, these basic principles. 

Of what use to man, measured by these scientific 
standards of value, are Popery and Priestcraft? 

I answer unhesitatingly and unqualifiedly An 
unmitigated Curse! 

This answer is justified by all history, and is as 
true and as exact to-day, up to the latest act and 
message from Rome, as it was during the horrors 
of the Inquisition ; and there are evidence and specific 
statements to show that Rome would re-establish 
the " Holy Inquisition " to-day, if she dared and 
had the power. 



THE MEASURE OF VALUES 49 

It is this power, exercised through fear, on the 
basis of ignorance and superstition so instilled by 
what Popery calls " Religious Education," that 
prevents the majority of fourteen millions in 
America to-day, as everywhere and in all time, from 
exercising their prerogative and doing their duty 
as Individuals. 

Is it not plain, therefore, how impossible it is to 
separate the Individual and the Social status? 

Psychology and Sociology are departments of 
one Science, viz. : the Science of Man, Anthropology. 
Individuals and Institutions are under one law, 
one law of use, one measure of values. 

He who ignores, evades, or belittles these plain 
issues and scientific principles, can settle with the 
law in his own time, though he cannot evade them 
always. 

Note.— During the last week of the year 1910, the daily papers 
announced that before the beginning of 1911 every Priest in the 
Diocese was required to take an oath to oppose and resist Modernism 
and to obey in all things the dictum and dogmas of His Holiness. 
As everyone knows that under the term Modernism is included all 
progress, investigation, and civilization condemned by the Vatican, 
everything that even questions the dogmas and despotism of Rome, 
the meaning of this required oath is plain. 

It is doubtless renewed by reason of (among others) a book, — "Letters 
to His Holiness by a Modernist," which, written seemingly by a Priest, 
makes exceeding plain the meaning of Modernism and the relation 
of the Vatican thereto. The book marks an epoch in the close of the 
old year and the beginning of the new, and Rome has acted accord- 
ingly. She can delay the stream of progress as she has always done, 
but she cannot turn it backward. It will eventually overwhelm her. 



CHAPTER V 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 

THE problem of the continued conscious life 
of man after the death of the physical body, 
concerns the where and the how, and does not, and 
need not, concern us at all now. It is, literally, an 
" after consideration." 

Who and what man is, here and now, is the 
real problem. Only when, or in the degree in 
which, we master this problem, can we really know 
anything definitely of the other. 

The complete separation of these two problems, 
and the exact definition and formulation of each, 
is the first step on the road to knowledge of the 
Science of the Soul. 

For the time being, in the study of Psychology, 
" other worldliness " should be absolutely aban- 
doned. 

Almost everyone finds it difficult to do this. 
Many find it impossible. 

The fear and uncertainty with which almost 
everyone faces the inevitable, the loss of friends, 
the broken lute, the empty chair, the lonely life — 
all these make us ciy out in anguish — where 
and how and when, and overlook the " what are 
we? " 

50 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 51 

So-called Religion in all time has almost hope- 
lessly mixed and confused these problems. 

The various concepts and doctrines of rewards 
and punishments hereafter, have put ulterior 
motives in the place of actual values, weakened 
the will and hindered man from doing his best. 

A still further confusion follows, in the measure 
of assets, that leads to time-serving and false values. 

Satisfy the average individual that " death ends 
all " and he will cry, " Let us eat, drink, and be 
merry, for to-morrow we die," notwithstanding the 
fact that he sees others who have " gone the pace," 
realized only " dust and ashes," declared it " all a 
mistake," and that if they had the chance they 
would "do it all the other way." 

Remember, we are dealing with actual values 
here and now, divested of both fear and anticipa- 
tion of the hereafter. 

On the other hand, who ever saw an individual 
die, who had led a clean, upright, kindly life, in- 
dulge in regret or remorse, or declare life a dis- 
appointment or a failure? 

The first is anchored to the physical plane by 
insatiate appetite and passion, or desire to reform, 
which might soon be forgotten. 

The other has found sweetness and joy in life, 
in conscious growth, in doing good; and his soul 
is illumined and transfigured as the body fails and 
he approaches another plane, and this often inde- 
pendent of any formulated religious belief. 

It all depends on what the man is within him- 



52 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

self, his intrinsic character, his real self; and no 
matter where he goes, that character, that self, 
goes with him. It is Himself. 

The " change in a moment, in the twinkling of 
an eye," is not in the man and cannot be. It is in 
the plane, or sphere, or world he inhabits, or to 
which he goes. It is a change of garments, of 
habitat, of houses in which we live — if we live 
at all. 

This much we know, and should not forget or 
confuse it. We know it, as we know that " twice 
two are four " ; that fire will burn, or that bodies, 
unsupported, fall to the ground. We know it 
from the fact of our own self-conscious identity. 
Radically or suddenly to change that essentially is 
to annihilate us. 

The preacher says, " Study the Bible." He 
might say, " Study yourself! " The preacher says, 
" Look to Jesus." He might say, " Look within! " 
The preacher says, " Repent and pray." I would 
say, " After an inventory of your inner possessions, 
clean up the house and go to work to improve it in 
every way." 

When " cleaning day " is well under way, if the 
" sure-enough " preacher drops in, and you show 
him the house and what you are trying your best 
to do, he will just start " Old Hundred," and will 
be too happy for anything else. 

I am not criticising the preacher, nor opposing 
religion, but getting ready for it, laying the foun- 
dation of Morals and the building of character. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 53 

" Religion " cannot do tliis. You and I have to do 
it, or it is never done. 

Without this work of ours, religion is little 
more, or else, than passing emotion or lasting 
superstition, " lip service," cant, hypocrisy, and then 
cold heartless dogmatism, a measure and jingling 
of words that never touch the heart, but leave the 
individual ready to throw stones and light brands 
of torture: a case-hardening of the affections 
and the aspirations, that wraps the soul like the 
bandages of the mummied Pharaohs, a mere petri- 
faction. 

We know, or may know, as much actually and 
scientifically of the growth of the soul as of the 
growth of the body. The average individual knows 
more of the soul than of the body, but his knowl- 
edge is in confusion. It is a matter of hourly, 
daily, life-long, and changing experience. He 
knows little of physiology, except feelings, sensa- 
tions, desires, and results. How and why the 
mechanism of the body works he knows not. 

Body and soul are organically identified, inti- 
mately associated and interwoven, and act and 
react on each other. They are functionally syn- 
chronous in all movements. The analogies between 
them are numberless and easily traced. 

The physician and physiologist does not stop 
to inquire, " What is Life " and refuse to move till 
someone gives a satisfactory answer; yet he is 
dealing with Life in its numberless manifestations 
in the human organism continually. 



54. STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

But this same physician is likely to debate and 
deny the existence of the Soul, demanding that you 
define and demonstrate it. 

The term " Individual Intelligence " is as defi- 
nite, specific, and demonstrable in Psychology as 
the term " Life " in Physiology. 

We are alive and we possess a certain degree or 
measure of intelligence. These are facts in our 
conscious experience. 

We may shape or mold our lives. We may 
do this according to our ideals, or we may drift with 
the tides of circumstance, or of passion and caprice, 
and this is what most persons do. 

So also with that intelligence which is the guiding 
light in our lives. It may illumine our pathway, 
or it may flash and fitfully glare, with the shadows, 
rendering our pathway obscure and uncertain, 
illusory and deceitful, or dangerous and fearful. 

The soul is in the body; and this light of intelli- 
gence is in the soul, its center, its very essence. 

All else in us, and round about us, is diversity and 
multiplicity. This light of intelligence in us is One 
and unchanging. 

Our experience in life, however varied and diversi- 
fied, is co-ordinated and unified by this Intelligence 
in us. It is that which puts all our experiences to- 
gether and views them through a single lens. It 
stands by itself alone, and all else pays tribute 
to it. 

It is the pronoun " I " and it stands for, speaks 
and acts for, all else in us. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 55 

It is not alone the only unity in us, but it is that 
which unifies all the rest, uses the " possessive case," 
and may subordinate all else in us to its Will. 

Does it, then, do violence to common sense and 
hourly experience, or is it any stretch of the imagina- 
tion to speak of this unity as an entity, and call it 
the human soul? 

If we live after the change called death, in a 
spiritual world, in place of the physical we now in- 
habit, and with a spiritual or refined body to corre- 
spond with that plane of refined or etherialized sub- 
stance, the Individual Intelligence must function in 
that body and on that plane as it does now in the 
physical body on the physical plane. 

Either something very like this takes place, or 
we cease to exist as a self-conscious individual 
intelligence. There must remain and continue 
man's self-conscious identity. 

Furthermore, if this be true, the real nature of 
this individual intelligence we call the Self, in the 
last analysis, is likely to be as much a mystery as 
ever. We may know who we are without knowing 
what it is. 

Now the composite nature of man, as we know 
it, not only justifies all these analogies, but seems 
to show that the modulus, the germ at least, of 
the spiritual body exists now within the physical; 
that it does not disintegrate when the physical body 
dies, but separates and coheres more closely than 
ever; and is still inhabited or possessed by the 
individual intelligence. 



56 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

Moreover, it has often been seen by clairvoyants 
at the time of death, thus verifying the Biblical 
declaration, " there is a natural (physical) body, 
and there is a spiritual body." 

The composite structures of man's organism 
above referred to are well known. They are 
called " systems." The bony or Osseous system, 
the muscular sj^stem, the circulatory system, the 
lymphatic system, and the two nervous systems, 
serve as illustrations of the composite nature of 
man. 

All of these " systems " more or less inter-pene- 
trate and diffuse each other. 

There is also a chemico-vital, kinetic, or magnetic 
body, diffused through and inter-penetrating all 
the rest. This gives the contrast between the living 
organism (with the flush of health upon the cheek 
and the light of intelligence in the eyes), and a 
corpse. 

Death is often instantaneous, while decomposi- 
tion often waits for days. 

There is a still further analogy regarding a 
single function, like a sensory or motor impulse, 
passing to or from the central brain, the organ 
of consciousness. The journey is one of relays 
and orderly sequences. 

This is proven in a great variety of forms of 
paresis. I cannot, as an individual intelligence, 
directly move my hand any more than I can move a 
mountain. I conceive the object or act and set the 
will in motion. The impulse traverses the nerves, 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 57 

is transferred to the muscle, and then, when the 
circuit is complete, I move my hand. 

The gap between my conscious intelligent wish 
and will, and my physical hand, is very great. 
One is metaphysical, the other physical. There is, 
therefore, a point of correlation where the one is 
converted into the other. 

The knowledge of these facts, and of this orderly 
sequence and correlation, constitutes the Science of 
pathology and enables us to locate the lesion or 
disease. I cannot move my hand, and the pa- 
thologist locates the " short-circuit " in brain, or 
nerve, or " terminal plate," or muscle, as the case 
may be. 

Now it is this system of composite systems that 
deserves special attention. We know that it exists 
as a series of relays and refining processes. In 
disease it is interrupted, or out of joint, or broken 
down. 

Health means harmony, concord, rhythm between 
every part, and the power of the one individual 
intelligence to use it all, to act or refrain from 
action, and to hold and maintain through all, re- 
pose, equilibrium, and self-mastery. 

The physical body we know to be a thing of 
sense and time. We know its beginning, its gesta- 
tion, its entrance and exit on this material plane. 
Its secrets are all involved in the subtle relations 
it bears to the soul that inhabits, unifies, and uti- 
lizes it. 

The Individual Intelligence, Ego, Soul, or 



58 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

Entity, is as patent to us in our awareness of self 
as is the body it inhabits. It is our very self. 
Our knowledge of it is a direct personal experience, 
so direct, immediate, and constant that we overlook 
its significance. 

I can see no reason to imagine that a human 
being, passing from the earthly plane and con- 
sciously living on the spiritual plane and recog- 
nizing itself as the same individual, would be any 
wiser as to the exact nature and origin of the 
Individual Intelligence than he is now; though his 
field of vision and range of conscious experience 
had so immeasurably increased and expanded. 

If he had solved this problem of ultimates, he 
would be at the end of his thread of life and would 
compass the Infinite. He would be no longer 
Man, but God. 

So, from all these considerations, and from all 
directions, we come back to human evolution, the 
upward and onward journey of the human soul. 

As man's health, usefulness, and happiness here 
depend on the perfection and utility of the physical 
body he inhabits, and its maintenance in health 
and harmony, have we the least reason to imagine 
that the same individual, dwelling on the spiritual 
plane, will not be under the same or analogous 
laws and relations there, since we have assumed 
the persistence and conscious identity of the soul 
there as here? 

I hold, therefore, that man possesses, now and 
here, the structure of a Spiritual Body; and that the 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 59 

" growth of the soul " and our status and relation 
to the soul, and our status and relation to the life 
after death on the spiritual plane, depend very 
largely on the character and integrity of this spirit- 
ual body, the " house we have builded." 

The whole of life, therefore, here, is what gesta- 
tion of the infant body is before birth. When the 
child is born it is a separate personality, a distinct 
individuality. 

There has been woven into its organism a distinct 
and synchronous correspondence with that of the 
mother. 

During gestation it has passed through every 
plane of organic life, from amoeba, or mollusk, to 
man. 

It is thus in touch with every phase and quality 
of life. It epitomizes them all, transcends them all, 
and may co-ordinate them all. 

On the other hand, the individual intelligence of 
the child, a distinct and separate unity, is in vital, 
spiritual, and synchronous relation to that of the 
mother that enfolds it. 

It is either building or rejuvenating a new 
spiritual body, as the " essential form " of the 
physical, organic, chemical, and kinetic or magnetic 
body. 

What we call "Life," or "Vitality," runs like 
a " dominant chord " in the harmonic scale of the 
whole. Each part, organ, and function is related to 
every other and to the whole by definite vibrations 
and the laws of harmony. 



60 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

If, from the beginning, it is an " unwelcome 
child," the higher and subtler elements of the 
mother's nature, and all her emotions are turned 
against it, are discordant and not constructive and 
harmonic. 

Discord is thus ingrained at the foundations and 
woven into the " subtle body " of the child. 

Nature is so persistent in its determination to 
preserve and perpetuate the human race, that the 
building of the organic body of the child goes on; 
and the Individual Intelligence is so potent that it 
often triumphs over these prenatal obstructions, but 
by no means always. If " there is a spiritual body " 
in the mother organism during the present life, 
as I am entirely satisfied there is; and if the child 
is laying the foundation and weaving the pattern 
and fabric of a spiritual body of its own for the 
present life and that immediately beyond; then 
these psychological influences and conditions are 
of transcendent importance and may be largely 
determined by our intelligent choice. 

A higher race of beings will never inhabit this 
earth till these fundamental laws are recognized 
and regarded. 

We may illustrate and symbolize this spiritual 
habitation we are building by the over-tones and 
the harmonics in music. 

Its nature and function and the whole process of 
building and development are a refining and puri- 
fying process. 

It may be conceived in the vito-magnetic field 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 61 

of man, as that which is in nearest relation and 
closest touch with the soul, the Individual Intelli- 
gence, and through, and by which the soul acts. 

Being in synchronous relation with the physical 
organs and functions, like a chord in music, a high 
with a lower tone (but still harmonic), the direct 
vehicle and agent of the soul would be this spiritual 
body; and when the physical body or vehicle dies, 
or is cast off, the spiritual body with the soul 
escapes. 

Empirical evidence along just these lines is so 
abundant in the annals of every people, and in all 
ages, that it is unnecessary to quote it here. Whole 
volumes are filled with it, outside the annals of 
Spiritualism and the Psychical Society, and ante- 
dating them by centuries and millenniums. 

The most important consideration is that the 
building of character by voluntary choice and per- 
sonal effort, the " growth of the soul," and the 
evolution of this spiritual body are inseparable. 
This trinity which is man, is potentially (and may 
be actually) a unity. 

The evolutionary and devolutionary lines run in 
precisely opposite directions, are easily differen- 
tiated and defined, are usually recognized by obser- 
vation and by the individual himself. It is very 
difficult and takes a long time to deceive ourselves 
with regard to the upward or downward trend of 
our own life, till we have blunted by misuse and 
degraded all the finer faculties, capacities, and 
powers of our being. 



62 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

A quickened conscience, a moral uplift, a desire 
to do right, a noble ideal, mark the beginning; but 
self -study, a rigid and persistent self-analysis, tak- 
ing account of stock of all our resources and capaci- 
ties, all our real possessions and opportunities, is 
the scientific process by which man may become 
master of his own life and evolve to higher and 
still higher planes of being, even here in the present 
life. 

The question of rewards and punishments here- 
after, and what we may expect, or hope, or fear, 
that we will get, will sink into utter nothingness 
before the great and ever-growing question of what 
we are, and what we are determined to become. 

Incidentally with this dominating impulse and de- 
termination will be the growth and development of 
the spiritual body, and the intuition and guiding 
light of the Individual Intelligence. We shall be- 
come consciously aware of this as a constant per- 
sonal experience demanding no further proof. It 
is knowledge of the soul direct. 

Every faculty, capacity, and power of the soul 
will be our willing servant. 

This is Constructive Psychology, and is a normal 
evolution under both Natural and Divine Law: 
" Living the Life that we may know the doctrine." 

It is practical, scientific Psychology worked out 
and demonstrated in the Laboratory of Life. Re- 
ligions and Revelations will no longer be mysteries, 
but open books; for we shall be in touch with their 
source and at-one with their inspiration. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 63 

This is what is meant by " The School of Natural 
Science." 

Nor is it an idle speculation, nor merely a thing 
" devoutly to be wished." 

If the whole nature of man is built and operated 
under law; if he is, as he seems to be, an aggregate 
of all substances, an epitome of all principles and 
processes; then it follows that to understand these 
laws, processes and correspondences, is to become 
master of them and of life. 

Wonderful as have been the discoveries in nature's 
finer forces and in applied science, all that science 
has discovered or invented, or art has devised, is 
like children's toys, when compared with the subtle 
and marvelous mechanism of man's organism. 

The rhythmic beating of the heart, synchronous 
with respiration and the circulation of the blood, 
are sufficient illustrations. But even this concerns 
the vehicle, not the driver; the instrument, not the 
player upon this " harp of a thousand strings." 

When it comes to the mental and psychical realm, 
cognition is direct and immediate. We become 
" aware " of relations and processes, of sequences 
and powers, by intuition, as we are aware of the 
Self. 

This is apperception in its highest sense. Not 
through the mind, which is a process and a function, 
but through that which uses, controls and dominates 
the mind, viz.: the Individual Intelligence, the Soul. 

In the mind, in daily life, we weigh and measure, 
reason, choose, compare, and adjust. In intuition 



64 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

or apperception it is borne in, or comes like a 
flash of light, and seems as if " we always knew 

it. 

We may somewhat haltingly describe the process, 
but we can never impart the knowledge to another, 
because it is an individual experience. As easily 
could another feel, sense, and realize the pain of 
thrusting our finger into the fire, as to receive 
vicariously, from us, a real physical experience. 

Here lies the difficulty, often the impossibility, 
of the teacher or the Master, in imparting his 
knowledge. 

I am entirely satisfied that by personal effort 
and experience along these lines of normal higher 
evolution, there comes a time and a degree of un- 
foldment and power when, from knowledge and 
self-mastery, the Master — the Individual Intelli- 
gence — having evolved and learned to control the 
spiritual body, can consciously and deliberately pass 
out of the physical body and return to it at will. 
He can do this as consciously and completely as 
it occurs at death; can go where he pleases, within 
the range of his unfoldment or spiritual experience, 
and retain conscious memory of it all after his re- 
turn to the physical body. 

And suppose this all to be true, how can he 
demonstrate the fact, or transmit the experience to 
another; and particularly if that other declared to 
begin with that, " the whole process is absurd and 
impossible " ? 

Nor is mere credulity here a highway to knowl- 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 65 

edge. It is merely the opposite pole of incredulity, 
and both are begotten by ignorance. 

Analogy and the basic principles and laws of 
scientific psychology are very different matters 
indeed. They point in this direction like a theorem 
in mathematics. The principles and laws being 
grasped and apprehended, the solution becomes 
only a question of work; and at every step the law 
is verified, " Backward and forward it still spells 
the same." 

What is this but the methods of Natural Science 
applied to Psychical Science upon the basis of the 
Unity of Natural Phenomena and Universal Law? 

There is nothing to prevent any of us from start- 
ing on this upward journey of the soul, if we 
choose; and never till we do, shall we really begin 
to know, to realize our birthright, and progress to- 
ward the realm of eternal day. 

The science of ethics, the basis of morals, is the 
starting point, the first step; and leading the life, 
the way. And there is no climbing up some other 
way. So said the Master of Galilee, and so say 
the real Masters in all times. 

When Jesus said, " I am the Way, the Truth, and 
the Life," he doubtless meant that these were all 
in him, and he at-one with them. 

When Jesus said, " I and the Father are one. 
No one cometh to the Father but by me," he doubt- 
less referred to this at-one-ment as the only way 
by which the natural man — Adam — could become 
the Spiritual man — Christos. 



66 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

When he said, " The kingdom of heaven is within 
you," he undoubtedly meant that " heaven " is a 
condition, a harmonic state, and not a place. 

We undoubtedly create our own " hell " and our 
own " heaven," and people them with " devils " or 
with " angels." 

True Science and true Religion clasp hands, and 
are like the two hands of the one body of Truth. 
They check each other, supplement each other, 
harmonize each other. 

Superstition and blind dogma are the enemies 
of true Science; Religion — never. 

Science and Religion are the handmaids of 
Truth; because both are the children of Divinity, 
the agents of Light and of Eternal Progress for 
Man. 

This building of character, this growth of the 
soul, this Harmonic of Evolution, is a matter of 
work,, of personal endeavor, of valid, real, personal 
experience. 

Its results are our real possessions, our " treasure 
in heaven " that nothing can ever destroy. Life 
and Death may ebb and flow, and come and go; 
but we may, if we will, go on forever; or we may 
turn the other way and go down to death. Some 
day every human soul will elect, choose, and 
decide and then start on the journey, North or 
South. 

This is the meaning of Soul, of Individual In- 
telligence, of Rational Volition, of Personal Re- 
sponsibility. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 67 

It is the Science of Nature aligned with Divinity, 
and compassing Humanity. 

The purpose of these outlines, suggestions, 
analogies, and inferences, is to show that this life 
is a period of gestation, in close analogy and com- 
parable with that of the child in utero; that with the 
web and woof of character, organ and function, 
impulse and use, opportunity and destiny, we are 
building a spiritual body, the immediate vehicle of 
the soul, as literally as is the physical body on the 
outer material plane; that the laws of Spiritual 
health and vitality are as concrete, apprehensible, 
and demonstrable as those of physiology. 

Normal use under law develops health, harmony, 
and strength, in the one case as in the other, 
demonstrably; and these laws, accurately formu- 
lated and demonstrated, constitute the School of 
Natural Science, accessible to all prepared to receive 
and wisely use them; advancement depending on 
progress, thoroughness, and loyalty, in all preceding 
degrees. 

Is it worth while? 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CROSS IN RELIGION AND THE CRUX 
IN SCIENCE 

WITH THE GREAT WORK IN AMERICA 

ITH the progress of civilization and the gen- 
eral growth and diffusion of intelligence 
everywhere, there is one problem upon which all else 
focalizes, though the fact seems to be seldom clearly 
apprehended or realized. 

Not only do science and religion face each other 
at one point, but the life of each is at that one 
point involved. It is not only the often recognized 
" conflict between Religion and Science," which was 
long ago worn threadbare. It is the fact that both 
Science and Religion are out of joint with them- 
selves. 

The battle-ground may, in a broad way, be named 
Psychology. All problems and all discussions of 
the real issues arise from, involve, or center around, 
the nature, laws that govern, and destiny of the 
Human Soul. 

From the very nature of these problems, their 
intricacy and diversity, they remained the latest in 
the categories of Science to be seriously investi- 
gated. 

68 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 69 

For the same reasons they have been the subject 
of dogma and revelation in religion, with doors 
slammed in the face of all investigation as not only 
useless, but wicked, and often made dangerous. 

Between the agnosticism of Science, and the 
dogmatism of Religion, knowledge has been cruci- 
fied, and there it hangs to-day, a crux to the one, 
and the Cross to the other: The same problem, 
only facing different ways. 

And yet the Reconciliation is not far to seek. 
It is difficult for the average churchman, or theolo- 
gian, to apprehend and remember, that a fact, in 
nature or in life, is one thing; and that the inter- 
pretation, or explanation put upon that fact, by any 
man, or body of men, is another thing entirely. 
Here is where Belief, Dogma, and Heresy come in. 
As soon as one denies the interpretation, he is 
accused of denying the fact, no matter how illogical 
or absurd the interpretation may be, on the one 
hand, or how openly he admits the fact as the basis 
of his own conclusions, on the other. 

Few individuals will be found nowadays who 
deny the fact of the birth, life, mission, and death 
of Jesus of Nazareth. But the interpretations read 
into the fact differ so widely as to result in almost 
numberless sects, and an endless war of words. 
All this theological wrangling may be focalized at 
one point, almost on a single word. Did Jesus of 
Nazareth differ in kind or in Degree, from the rest 
of Humanity? 

If he had "a like nature with ours," as he and 



70 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

his disciples took the utmost pains to declare, and 
to demonstrate, then he differed in degree of un- 
foldment, and was indeed, our Elder Brother; He 
differed as the holy differs from the unholy; as 
the pure differs from the impure; as the kind and 
charitable differ from the unkind and the un- 
charitable. It is just at this point that all the 
theological juggling comes in, in the effort to recon- 
cile contradictions and irreconcilable paradoxes, 
under the designation — Mystery, Miracle, and 
Faith. Few theologians would admit that it is 
desirable, even if possible, that the mystery and 
miracle should disappear, and that wisdom and 
understanding should take their place. In other 
words, that Jesus should be proved an evolution 
under both natural and divine law, as the result of 
" Living the Life." 

Bear in mind that we are dealing with Interpre- 
tations only, and with the opinions of men; and 
that there is nothing " sacred " or " holy " about 
these opinions, no matter how they may be hedged 
about by dogma, or ecclesiastic authority. The 
Immaculate Conception; the Virgin Birth; the 
Resurrection of the physical body, and the Vicarious 
Atonement, are each and all Dogmas; the opinions 
of men, in interpreting the mystery, and miracle, 
they have assigned to the nature of Jesus, in what 
they call the " plan," or the " Scheme of Salvation." 

If the nature of Jesus were radically and essen- 
tially different from ours; if he differed from us in 
hind, instead of in degree; if he were " very God," 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 71 

instead of a perfected man, as the result of " Living 
the Life " ; then he can have little in common with 
us; and, so far as " like natures," " common tempta- 
tions," and human sympathies, and destinies, are 
concerned, he might as well have been born on the 
planet Mars. 

But suppose that psychic and spiritual science 
could so define the faculties, capacities, and powers 
of man, and the nature and laws of the human 
soul, as to demonstrate the fact that Jesus became 
Christos through " living the life," and " doing the 
will of the Father," in strict conformity to both 
Natural and Divine Law, thus revealing the fact 
that these potencies are latent in every human 
soul: that it does not depend so much upon what 
we believe, as upon what we do; not so much upon 
what we profess, as upon what we are; not so much 
upon what Jesus did for us, as upon what we do 
for ourselves and for others, in strict analogy with 
the life and the teachings of Jesus. Would not 
Jesus become, indeed and in truth, a Living Ex- 
ample, in place of a " Blood Offering " ? 

Theology ignores and sophisticates Personal 
Responsibility, which everything else, and every 
experience in life, justifies and enforces as the basis 
of Morals. 

On the other hand, so-called Psychic Science 
misapprehends, belittles, and sophisticates the 
Human Will, the prime Motor Power of Man. It 
then confuses Rational Volition and Domination by 
juggling with the words Suggestion and Hypnosis. 



72 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

This reveals the fact that they have no rational 
concept whatever of the psychical nature of man, 
not even a " working hypothesis " of the Human 
Soul. Theologians affirm, " Science " denies, and 
so they still face each other in this Twentieth Cen- 
tury with " A war of words," though, to a consid- 
erable extent, they have ceased making faces and 
calling each other names, because there is a deeper 
struggle going on. 

The Theological Hierarchy, worldly-wise in every 
generation, has dropped the cry of Heresy and 
gone to the very foundations of our civilization. 
They are sapping and mining the foundations of 
civil Liberty, the " self-evident truths," and the 
" Inalienable Rights," upon which this government 
was founded. 

Here is a thoroughly-organized, relentless de- 
termination, openly declared, and well under way 
to destroy our " Free Public Schools," and substi- 
tute that " Organized Ignorance," the Parochial 
Schools, as the first step in reuniting Church and 
State, through dogmatic authority instilled into the 
youths of this country. Not one citizen in a thou- 
sand seems to realize what is here being attempted, 
how thoroughly organized it is, or what immense 
progress in this direction has already been made; 
or, if they know, they do not seem to care. 

It may thus be seen what practical and vital 
issues we are facing and how much is involved in 
the " Cross of Religion," and the " Crux of Science." 

Intelligence, Education, the Light of Science, 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 73 

and the Illumination of true Religion, are pitted 
in a conflict with Ignorance, Superstition, and Fear ; 
dogmatism, degeneration, and devolution. 

Science and Religion represent different depart- 
ments in human interests and the life of man. So 
far as they are each true, they must eventually, 
and inevitably clasp hands, instead of working at 
cross-purposes. 

Actual knowledge of the human soul, as a Science 
of psychology, on the one hand; and the duty of 
man to himself, to his fellows, and to God, and 
the destiny of the human soul as essential religion, 
on the other; must constitute the basis of union, 
and the point of agreement. 

The accredited psychology of to-day has hitherto 
failed to demonstrate any actual knowledge of the 
human soul, or even to postulate its existence, as a 
fact in nature. 

The theologies and religions of to-day appeal 
largely to superstition and fear, and support their 
dogmas by " revelations," the diverse interpreta- 
tions of which have segregated religions into a 
large number of sects with no bond of union or 
basis of agreement. 

Competition here, in securing proselytes, differs 
little, except in name, from that everywhere in 
evidence between commercial organizations. It is 
hardly " the survival of the fittest," but rather, as 
everywhere, and in all ages, the triumph of the 
most powerful, aggressive, and unscrupulous. The 
Roman Hierarchy is still in the lead, with its Pope 



74 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

" infallible," and anathematizing all progress and 
enlightenment, under the designation of " Mod- 
ernism," and all its energy exerted to perpetuate 
the " Dark Ages." 

It is thus that priestcraft masquerades in the 
name of religion to enslave the human soul. Still 
outside this Babel of religion and science, lie num- 
berless cults and organizations professing both lib- 
erty and enlightenment along the lines of man's 
spiritual nature, not one of which puts forth any 
clear and definite theorem of the human soul. With 
mere assertions, instead of demonstrated facts, and 
appealing often to the desire for wealth, health, and 
comfort in their followers, they often declare that 
one has only to " demand " these things, in order to 
have them. Justice and the law of compensation 
are often entirely ignored, and the methods em- 
ployed are wranoral, to say the least, almost without 
exception, unscientific, and wholly empirical. 

Occasionally we find " Leaders," or " Official 
Heads," whose colossal ignorance of either moral 
or spiritual Law, is only equaled by their monu- 
mental egotism, and this does not prevent them 
from gaining proselytes, and amassing fortunes in 
their own name. 

It would be difficult to see how many of these 
cults differ, either in principle or practice, or in the 
results wrought out in their disciples, from the 
Priestcraft already referred to. 

They advertise an open thoroughfare, and seem 
to promise something for nothing, but from the 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 75 

vicarious atonement, up or down the scale, the 
votaries pay in " mint, anise, and cummin," while 
ignorantly blind to the weightier matters of the law. 

To one who for half a century has studied these 
personal and social problems, and witnessed the 
rise and fall of many of these cults, from the Fox 
Sisters and Spiritualism, to Braid and Hypnotism, 
while Priestcraft and Popery, like Tennyson's brook, 
" go on forever," it all seems pitiful that mankind 
must pay so dearly for freedom, enlightenment, and 
knowledge. 

And yet, when the real teacher comes, the rabble 
so long exploited cry, " Away with him," " Crucify 
him." When the rabble at last repent, Priestcraft 
shifts its tactics and deifies the sacrifice, which it 
instigated, and so perpetuates the eternal tragedy. 

Those familiar with the " Seeking after God," 
and for real knowledge of the essential nature of 
man, in all ages, are aware that there have always 
been, in every age, those who have achieved it. 
It has been known, or rather concealed, under many 
names. Its possessors and teachers have been re- 
viled, persecuted, crucified, and thus their work has 
been hindered and often defeated. 

The ignorant and superstitious feared it. The 
vicious, ambitious, and time-serving hated it, because 
it prevented the few from dominating and exploit- 
ing the many; liberating, as it does, the earnest 
seeker after truth and enlightenment from the 
bondage of ignorance, dogma, superstition, and 
fear, in every form. 



76 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

Hence Institutional Religions, Schools of Phi- 
losophy, Coteries, Syndicates, and many other or- 
ganizations of men, constituted to dominate and 
rule the masses, have been the sworn foes of in- 
dividual liberty and enlightenment, and of the 
" Illuminati," or real teachers in every age, and a 
perpetual menace to their work. 

Real knowledge of the nature and destiny of 
man, has first to be discovered, then recovered, and 
possessed. To become available, it must be simpli- 
fied, formulated, and finally promulgated in some 
form, so as to reach those ready and capable of 
receiving it. 

It must be sought earnestly and deservedly. The 
candidate must demonstrate that he is duly and 
truly prepared, worthy, and well qualified. Every 
step in advance is determined by his understanding 
and use of what he has hitherto received. 

The real possession of this sublime wisdom is an 
evolution from within and not something communi- 
cated from without. 

It is, literally, the building of character and 
the growth of the soul, as the highway of knowl- 
edge. 

To discover, possess, exemplify, and promulgate 
this knowledge, this higher evolution of the In- 
dividual Intelligence, in the face of all obstacles and 
difficulties, has been known and designated for 
ages as the Magnum Opus, the " Great Work." It 
is, indeed, the greatest work either known, permitted 
or possible to man. It solves the riddle of the 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 77 

Sphinx of Life and makes Man Master of Ms own 
destiny. 

Such a Master lives in a new world, untram- 
meled by the things of sense and time. He has 
indeed, " lived the life to know the doctrine," and 
can say with Jesus, in 'sincerity and truth, "I, and 
the Father, are One," because we are at-one. 

There is not a particle of evidence in history, in 
philosophy, or in science, to show that anyone has 
ever reached such knowledge, liberation, and en- 
lightenment, in any other way than that in which 
Jesus attained it; viz.: by renouncing the ordinary 
ambitions of life, wealth, fame, and power, and by 
overcoming selfishness and the lusts of the flesh; 
devoting their lives to the good of mankind, " with- 
out the hope of fee or reward." As the whole work 
is a spiritual unfoldment, and from beginning to 
end a refining process, it is easy to see how and why 
the conditions are what they are, and have always 
been the same. 

This is why those who have no apprehension or 
conception of the process, can see only mystery 
and miracle in the result. 

If anyone cites the so-called " black magicians " 
of Egypt, and of antiquity, to refute the moral code 
as the essential condition of attainment, they will 
find that these priests and " magi climbing up 
some other way," and whom Jesus designated as 
" thieves and robbers," could never function or pass 
beyond the so-called " astral plane." Here is where 
the Sibyl and the " virgin seer " came in. 



78 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

This is clearly shown in that little book " The 
Idyll of the White Lotus," as in several of Bulwer's 
novels. Hypnotism and Ceremonial Magic, as re- 
vealed in the writings of Abbe Constant, represent 
ambition for knowledge and power without " living 
the life," and at any cost to mankind. These 
Margraves have often existed, sealed their own 
fate, and " gone to their own place." H. P. 
Blavatsky referred to them as " lost souls," or 
" soulless individuals." They are also graphically 
described in " The Strange Story of Arinze- 
man." 

There was always the " Right-hand Path," and 
the " Left-hand Path." 

Even a slight familiarity with ancient literatures 
and philosophies reveals the fact, that all these 
things have been known for ages. The subtlety 
of the Hindoo mind has been such as to leave no 
phase of mental or psychic phenomena uninvesti- 
gated. 

To the casual and uninstructed reader, it often 
seems like an endless and hopeless jungle, and he is 
unable to bring order out of the seemingly endless 
confusion. 

There is not a single percept or concept in what 
is now called " New Thought," that may not be 
found repeated with almost endless variations thou- 
sands of years ago. 

Reference has already been made to the condi- 
tions imposed upon the student who aspires to know, 
and to become. 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 79 

The obligations upon the teacher are no less 
stringent, for both are, from first to last, working 
under both natural and spiritual law to which they 
are bound to conform. 

To be possessed of such knowledge the teacher 
must have abandoned worldly ambition, the love 
of wealth, and the applause of men. All motives 
of time-serving and self-seeking must assail him in 
vain. He becomes the almoner of the treasure- 
house of Light and Knowledge. He must exem- 
plify what he teaches. If he can impart his knowl- 
edge, or assist an aspiring and worthy brother, it 
must be in the way he has himself received it, 
" without money and without price," or any " hope 
of reward or fee," and the brother so receiving, in 
his own degree, must be ready to pass it on under 
precisely the same terms and conditions. 

The teacher, therefore, must be in a position to 
give or to withhold; promulgate or conceal; teach 
or refuse to teach; governed solely by Truth and 
Law, and the solemn obligation under which he has 
himself received it. 

The meaning of the saying, " strait is the gate 
and narrow is the way, and few there be who find 
it," may thus be made apparent. 

Fragments of this wisdom are found scattered 
through the ages, with here and there one who has 
achieved it. 

For two or three centuries the early Christian 
Church undertook to work on these lines, and insti- 
tuted three degrees, as abundantly shown in the 



80 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

writings of many of the so-called " Christian, or 
Church Fathers." 

Jesus said to his disciples, " I have many things 
to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." 
And again, " The works that I do, ye shall do also, 
and greater things than these shall ye do, because 
I go to the Father." And again, " Unto you it is 
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of 
heaven, but to them who are without, it is not 
given." 

Mysteries, indeed, to the ignorant monks who 
were already wrangling over creed, and dogmas, 
and who, in 325 at the First Council at Nice, 
fought it out surrounded by the soldiers of the 
Pagan Emperor, Constantine; and thus settled the 
" orthodox interpretation" of what they were 
wholly incompetent to understand. Their suc- 
cessors are still engaged in the same wrangle of 
interpretation, so far as the " Infallible Pope," and 
dogma of obedience, at Rome has been unable to 
suppress it. 

Somewhere between the middle of the first and 
second centuries, an effort at union and reconcilia- 
tion arose from another quarter. Ammonius Saccas, 
a Neo-Platonist, endeavored to unite men of differ- 
ent cults and beliefs on the lines of the Great Work, 
precisely as the Philalethean Society is doing in 
New York to-day; but his movement was soon 
engulfed and lost sight of by the tide of Ecclesias- 
ticism, or suppressed by the soldiers of Constantine. 

I am not attempting a history, for that would 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 81 

fill volumes. I am only giving a few sidelights of 
the Great Work. 

In the Tenth Century, at Baghdad, a society 
was formed admitting Jews, Christians, Moham- 
medans, and atheists, with a similar purpose. 

During the time of Martin Luther, John Reuch- 
lin made a similar attempt. Both Reuchlin and 
Luther were pupils of Trithemius, the Abbot of St. 
Jacob's at Wiirzburg, one of whose books I possess, 
printed in the year 1600, and also another book, 
" The Theosophical Transactions of the Philadel- 
phian Society," printed in London in 1697. Brown- 
ing's " Paracelsus " gives a splendid outline of the 
philosophy and teachings of Trithemius, and rescues 
Paracelsus with all who can understand, from the 
vile slanders of his monkish enemies; and Robert 
Browning wrote his " Paracelsus " at the age of 
twent}r-three ! Can you wonder why so few " under- 
stand Browning"? 

For more than fifteen hundred years mankind 
has been involved between the speculations of Phi- 
losophy, on the one hand, and the creeds and 
dogmas of Theology, on the other. 

There was also the deliberate destruction of 
ancient monuments, scrolls, and records, by reli- 
gious fanatics. Diocletian, in A.D. 296, burned the 
books of the Egyptians. Caesar burned 700,000 
Rolls at Alexandria, and Leo Isaurus 300,000 at 
Constantinople in the eighth century. Then came 
the Mohammedans, who destroyed the remainder of 
the accessible scrolls at Alexandria. Gangs of 



82 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

fanatical Monks, Christian and Pagan, roamed 
over Europe destroying and defacing everything 
upon which they could lay their hands, as witnesses 
against their dogmas and superstitions. Even to- 
day, in India, it is difficult for Europeans to gain 
access to genuine ancient records. The records of 
these barbarities are still fresh in the minds of the 
guardians of sacred lore. 

Even with such a record for thousands of years, 
Ecclesiasticism is as arrogant and rampant as ever 
to-day. The wonder is, that there is anything left 
but barbarism. 

Two writers declare that the most ancient and 
valuable of the records of the Alexandrian Library 
were kept in secret crypts known only to the high- 
est officials, and preserved still in secret crypts 
known only to the Illuminati. In Baalbec and all 
through the East to-day these underground temples 
are being explored, and even the fragments found 
excite wonder and admiration. Ignorant Barba- 
rians may be destructive on general principles, but 
fanatical Ecclesiasticism has ever been destructive 
of all light, knowledge and civilization, through 
insane hatred or pure " cussedness " ! We need 
only to regard intelligently what it has done, and is 
doing for Southern Europe to-day. 

Can you wonder that the real science of the 
Human Soul found little recognition, or that it was 
denied as possible to man? 

As already shown, the Science of to-day has 
neither recognized nor worked up to it; and the 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 83 

Theologjr of to-day covers it with fable, mystery, 
and miracle as of old. 

In spite of both these the " Philalethean Society " 
exists, the " Seekers after God " were never more 
numerous than now, and the Magnum Opus, the 
Great Work, was never, in the whole history of man, 
more in evidence than it is to-day. 

" Truth crushed to Earth shall rise again, 
The Eternal years of God are hers." 

Can it be that there is no great truth back of all 
these struggles and aspirations of the human soul? 
That there is no possible realization back of these 
soulful endeavors? 

Is Tantalus, after all, the creator and Father of 
Man? inspired only by love of disappointment, 
defeat, and despair, in his children? 

For one, I do not believe it. 

To plant these aspirations in the soul of man, 
and doom them to everlasting disappointment and 
defeat, would brand the creator of man as an 
Infinite Liar, instead of a Loving Father. 

The earnest student must first learn to recognize, 
and to discriminate ; for the " blind leaders of the 
blind " are always legions. 

This power of discrimination, to which I have 
referred, goes deeper, and means far more, than 
most persons ever realize, and this is why so many 
are continually deceived. 

It is the light of understanding, of spiritual in- 
telligence, within the soul of man. 



84 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

It may be likened to a traveler in a foreign 
country, and a strange land, suddenly hearing one 
speaking fluently his own language, his native 
tongue. It is impossible to deceive him. In this 
case, however, it is not the mere words, the inflec- 
tion or pronunciation, but the ideas, sentiments, 
and principles expressed. 

" Liberty, Fraternity, Equality," for example ; 
or sympathy, Charity, and loving kindness. 

The " sign of the Master " is at once recognized 
by one already prepared to receive and to under- 
stand it. The soul that really desires truth and 
wisdom above all things, has thereby developed the 
power to recognize it. 

This is the discrimination referred to. It is not 
what someone else tells you, or what another claims. 
It is what you discern and recognize, and the teach- 
ing and the life are in perfect harmony, like chords 
in music; and they strike a harmonic chord in you, 
that may be first a surprise, and soon a great joy 
and a bright light. 

It is not a question of authority, and of cre- 
dentials, but of intrinsic reality. You must know 
how to assay and test the gold yourself. This is 
where the " Alchemy of the Great Work " comes 
in, and here lies the beginning of Adeptship, the 
preparation for the " Great Work." I can demon- 
strate this from a score of old books, some of 
them going back many centuries. 

It has also been symbolized and picturegraphed 
'til the imagination ran riot, and ingenuity and 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 85 

fancy became lost, like ideas in a fantasy of words. 

I know of but one place, one Institution, in 
modern times, where these essential truths of the 
Great Work have been preserved as a consistent 
whole, and that is in the symbolism of Free Ma- 
sonry, but the craft long ago lost the real interpre- 
tation, though irsluj to-day are on the lines that 
lead to it. 

The whole symbolism and ritual of the Blue 
Lodge in Masonry is, from beginning to end, 
a symbol of the journey of the human soul on this 
earth, from darkness to light; from sin to righteous- 
ness; from ignorance to wisdom and understanding. 

In other words, it is an exact theorem and solu- 
tion of the Magnum Opus; a symbol of the phi- 
losophy and accomplishment of the GREAT 
WORK. 

The science and the theology of the present 
day have been briefly contrasted. Neither of them 
pretends to give us any real science of the human 
soul. 

Science says frankly she " does not know." The- 
ology bids us believe and obey; trust and hope. 
Philosophy speculates and reasons, while amusing 
itself with the kaleidoscope of " postulates " and 
" categories." 

Science must deal with facts, demonstrate their 
actuality, and classify them; that is, find their 
natural order and sequence. 

In psychology, the facts are within the realm of 
consciousness, and therefore their demonstration is 



86 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

a matter of individual experience. This is why 
psychology differs from all other sciences. 

No one can transfer his individual experiences 
directly to another. He can describe how he gained 
them, and give the result and conclusions, and here 
is where those who know nothing of the real prob- 
lem, are often both incredulous and contemptuous. 
The only answer to these is, " they are joined to 
their idols, let them alone." " They would not be- 
lieve though one arose from the dead," and yet we 
are told again and again that the " School of 
Natural Science " is the " school of personal ex- 
perience." 

It may be well to reflect a moment, and ask 
ourselves, how it is that we really know anything? 
Is it not through personal experience? Ileal 
knowledge comes, and can come, in no other way. 

No teacher of the real science of psychology can 
ever transmit or transfer his knowledge to another. 
All he can do is to describe the methods, and steps, 
by which he acquired it, and assist the student in 
acquiring it for himself in the same way, or under 
the same processes and laws. 

We have only to reflect on the ordinary ex- 
periences of life, to realize that this is a universal 
principle and rule. In the deeper science of the 
soul, and the higher life, instead of this law being 
relaxed, it becomes all the more binding. 

Do not the principles that adhere in atom, mol- 
ecule and mass, still hold in worlds and solar sys- 
tems? Is not this precisely what is meant by " The 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 87 

Reign of Law"? If man were built upon some 
other scheme or plan than the rest of nature, how 
could he apprehend or adjust himself to Nature? 
The veiy concept of miracle is lawlessness, and 
mystery is but another name for ignorance. 

Knowledge means experience and apprehension 
of Law. 

Neither can the laws of Nature and the laws of 
God be at cross-purposes, for that would make 
harmony impossible and inconceivable. 

The confusion and discord are all in us, and the 
Great Work means adjustment, harmony, and then 
Knowledge. 

It is the journey of the human soul on the 
Royal Highway to Light, Liberation, and Eternal 
Day. 

For many centuries those who have achieved this 
Wisdom, this " Great Work," have been trying to 
make it accessible to mankind, and to place it in 
such form that the ethical, scientific, and philosophi- 
cal principles involved, and upon which it is based, 
should not again be lost. Every such effort has 
hitherto failed. 

The scientific spirit of the present age, in a very 
broad way, seemed to offer a new and a more ad- 
vantageous opportunity; for the whole process is 
one of strict science. 

The Psychology of the present day has become 
involved in phenomena and automatism, and is in no 
sense constructive. It is one thing to build theories, 
and quite a different thing to systematize demon- 



88 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

strated facts, through the recognition of co-ordinate 
relations, and underlying law. 

The work is open and accessible to all who mani- 
fest real interest, an open mind, and who have the 
intelligence and discrimination to recognize the char- 
acter of the work. It has never, in the history of 
man, been open in any other way, on any other 
terms, or to any other individuals. 

Those who can fill these requirements constitute 
to-day a larger number than have before existed 
at any one time, for perhaps many centuries. 

The " School of Natural Science " is in evidence. 
The "Great Work" is carefully outlined. 

There is no bar to one's making a beginning on 
the path, except indifference, incredulity, preoccu- 
pation, or prejudice; and these need not be in the 
least disturbed, for they will be kindly and cour- 
teously passed by. 

Arguments, controversy, and proselyting, have 
no part in the Great Work, as there is no organi- 
zation, and no personal ambitions to serve. 

Those who speak a common language, are inspired 
by a common purpose, and aspire to a common and 
universal good, will, soon or late, find themselves 
associated together and co-operating. 

It is like a chorus of voices when an old song 
is started that we loved in childhood. Each takes 
up the strain, falls into his own part, and helps 
to swell the harmony, from the joy of his own 
heart. 

Those who " never did like the song," will 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 89 

" quietly steal away." Both Swedenborg and 
Emerson have sufficiently illustrated the " Law of 
Correspondencies," and " compensation," to reveal 
the basis of all harmonious human associations, 
whether on the earth, or on other planes of being. 
Hence the " Harmonics of Evolution," was the 
forerunner of the " Great Work." 

The pitiable byplay and claptrap of " Affini- 
ties " so often seen and heard nowadays, where all 
previous obligations are ignored, and personal re- 
sponsibilities set at naught, only serve to emphasize 
the real law of harmony and constructive evolution, 
by showing what it is not. 

The Great Work digs to the very foundations 
of life, and all human associations, and reveals the 
Good, the True, and the Beautiful, in the build- 
ing of character, and the adornment of the Tem- 
ple of the Human Soul. 

This is indeed — 



" Eternal Progress moving on, 
From state to state the spirit walks." 



Death is neither the end nor the beginning. It 
is only a change in pitch, a shifting of keys, and 
the same old Song of Life goes on, if we have 
but learned the score, and caught the harmony. 

Salvation is not a thing accomplished once for 
all. We have only to consider the monotony, the 
poverty of invention, and imagination, of those who 
have tried to portray the joy of the Redeemed in 



90 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

heaven, in order to realize what a bore it would soon 
become, if that were all. 

Inspiration, achievement, and eternal progress, 
with more and more helpfulness to others, with 
plane after plane achieved, revealing plane after 
plane beyond — does not this appeal far more 
strongly to the highest and best in us all? 

And pray, what is this, but the Great Work, that 
I have tried herein to outline, and as taught and 
lived by Jesus, and every great Master the world 
has ever known? Each has achieved in his own 
degree, worded it in his own way, and " stepped 
out of sunlight into shade, to make more room for 
others." 

Long before the birth of Jesus, it was said, " The 
wise and peaceful ones live, renewing the earth like 
the coming of Spring." And having themselves 
crossed the ocean of embodied existence, help all 
those who try to do the same thing, without personal 
motive. 

I have endeavored to give a general outline of 
the Great Work, drawn from history, tradition, 
philosophy, and symbolism, down to the present 
year of grace. I find many corroborations, many 
things pointing in the same general direction. But 
I find but one concise and definite formulation of 
the scientific theorem, in which the outline is clear, 
and the analogy complete, and thereby made acces- 
sible and apprehensible to the open-minded and in- 
telligent student. 

Such students need experience no real difficulty 



CROSS IN RELIGION AND CRUX IN SCIENCE 91 

in finding a clew to the labyrinth of life, or, as our 
ancient brothers put it in regard to the Magnum 
Opus — " a key to the closed palace of the king." 

This is the purpose of the " Harmonic Series " 
of books. They need rest upon no authority beyond 
the intrinsic evidence of truth, on every page. If 
they are not consistent in themselves, then they 
must fall in pieces. The only appeal to the reader 
is: read them carefully, analyze your own mind and 
soul, and come to your own conclusions. If they 
find no response, no answering chord in you, 
then they were written for someone else, or in 
vain. 

One further consideration remains to be noted at 
this time, as the question is sure to arise: "How 
about woman in the Great Work? " Seldom in the 
past has she received recognition, since the earliest 
da}^s in Old India, though here and there have been 
the most noble women. 

I heard Anna Dickinson, many years ago, open 
one of her famous lectures with these words, " I 
claim for man and woman alike, the right to attempt 
and win. I claim for man and woman alike, the 
right to attempt and fail." 

It seems to me to-day, as it did more than thirty 
years ago, that this is the whole problem in a nut- 
shell, and that any number of words could add noth- 
ing to the statement. 

The Great Work is as open to woman as to 
man, and on the same terms. They have per- 
haps more to overcome in some directions, and 



92 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

men more in others. This is like saying, " man and 
woman are different," that is all. 

One thing is certain; there will never be an 
ideal social state on earth, or a heaven anywhere, 
except as men and women co-opefate together for 
the happiness of each, and the highest, noblest, 
cleanest good of all, and this is only another phase 
or department of the Great Work. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MODULUS OF NATURE AND THE THEOREM 
OF PSYCHOLOGY 

THE Science of Psychology, like any other 
science, must deal with demonstrated facts, 
classify them, and systematize the resulting cate- 
gories. 

Strictly logical conclusions drawn from categories 
of facts so derived, deserve the name of Science. 

Science is, therefore, a definite method of arriving 
at exact conclusions. No other method can legiti- 
mately bear the name of science. 

No one pretends to dispute the conclusions logi- 
cally involved in the Binomial Theorem; or in the 
Parallelogram of forces; or in correlative mechanical 
equivalents; or in many of the known laws of chem- 
istry and physiology. 

When, however, we come to mental processes and 
psychical phenomena, the facts are so redundant, 
and so differently reported and apprehended, that 
argument, belief and prejudice, credulity and in- 
credulity, overshadow and drown with a war of 
words all clear, scientific methods or conclusions. 

But if man, as a whole, is a fact in nature; or if 
" God made Man a Living Soul," then the whole 
nature of man exists under law, and is apprehensible 
to science. 

93 



94 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

Man's function as a scientist is to read, to reflect, 
to weigh, to measure, and to understand. 

There are those who object to Natural Science as 
applied to " Divine " things. They would preserve 
the mystery, and seem to prefer miracle and dogma 
to knowledge and law. 

Their preference is to be respected, even though 
ignorance and superstition result. Since the domain 
of science, in America at least, is no longer restricted 
by ecclesiastic law, the conflict between Religion and 
Science has gradually disappeared, and the con- 
flict is rather that between knowledge and ignorance, 
with ignorance on the wane. 

" Things settled by long use, if not absolutely 
good, at least fit well together." 

This transition period seems confusing to many 
earnest souls with its " New Thought," its " occult- 
isms " and its " Lo here's " and " Lo there's." But 
through and beneath it all, may be heard a note of 
harmony, the promise and the potency of the tri- 
umph of light and knowledge. 

We may not know the final results, but every 
sincere and earnest seeker may have the peaceful 
assurance that he is on the open highway that 
leads to the noblest and the best. 

The assurance of knowledge but makes clearer 
the revelations of faith. 

That " absentee God " — of which Carlyle wrote, 
has been discerned as the Universal Intelligence, 
and equally Love and Law. 

Among recent writers and books on the subject 



THE MODULUS OF NATURE 95 

of psychology, Professor Hugo Miinsterberg's 
" Psychotherapy " occupies a very high place. It 
appeals especially to the physician, more familiar 
than others with morbid psychical states. Here I 
can look back on almost half a century of experience, 
the most active, in dealing with these cases. 

But I am at present less concerned with mental 
pathology and therapy, than with the general psy- 
chological basis; the causative categories upon which 
they are based, and which occupy the first half of 
Miinsterberg's book. 

Dividing the whole subject — the content of con- 
sciousness, all the faculties, capacities and powers, 
all processes and sequences — into two general groups 
or classes, the purposive and the causal, Miinster- 
berg declares that " the causal view only is the view 
of psychology " ; " the purposive view lies outside of 
psychology." (P. 14.) 

I hold, that without the purposive view equally 
included and co-ordinated, there can be no such 
thing as Scientific Psychology. Half views will 
hardly admit of synthetic generalizations. 

The complete separation here instituted, between 
the purposive and causal factors, in itself, for pur- 
poses of definition and study, need not be objected 
to, if it were consistently carried out, which it is 
not. He so nearly pre-empts the whole ground for 
the causal, giving scant courtesy to the purposive, 
merely a few crumbs of comfort, so that it cannot 
be said to be ignored altogether, and drops the 
scientific method entirely in dealing with it; assent- 



96 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

ing to moral precepts and principles, without a 
clew to any scientific basis, that one must object 
to the name — Psychology — as being applied to it 
at all. It contains no hint of a " knowledge of the 
Soul." 

It is the Vito-Motor mechanism of the Mind. 
The Automatism of the elements, incidents, changes, 
and sequences of our states of consciousness; based 
upon, and including all that we know of physiology. 
Along these lines, Miinsterberg's work has probably 
never been equaled. It is concise, comprehensive, 
and exhaustive. 

His physical, physiological, and mental syntheses 
are well-nigh complete. 

Whenever, in the future, what he calls " the pur- 
posive view " shall be resurrected from the obscurity 
and nescience to which he has assigned it, and 
really habilitated in the garb of Science, and recog- 
nized as the lawful spouse of the causal^ we shall 
indeed have a true Psychology, a Science of the 
Human Soul. 

Miinsterberg neither scouts nor denies the possi- 
bility of such a future discovery. In the meantime, 
his viewpoint, and necessarily some of his conclu- 
sions and generalizations, are one-sided, and out of 
focus. 

Emphasizing the causal as he does, this could 
hardly be otherwise; and from this point of view, 
and for this reason, his practical Psychotherapy is 
purely empirical. 

We need not deny his facts, or his results, even 



THE MODULUS OF NATURE 97 

when mixed with hypnosis, more than he does the 
" cures " in " Christian Science," " Faith Cures," 
at Lourdes, or by the " laying on of hands." All 
these things are too well known, and not one of them 
deserves the name of Science. They are solely 
empirical methods. Miinsterberg's broader view 
and deeper analysis give to his methods great promi- 
nence, and he can point to no results that tran- 
scend the others. These facts and these results 
are as old as the history of man. They have, 
even as he points out, constituted epidemics of 
" cure." 

There is, moreover, a scientific view and method 
regarding what he calls the purposive view which 
he overlooks entirely, and which by emphasis of the 
causal, makes seemingly impossible. It is our pur- 
pose to try and make this clear. 

His analysis of Suggestion, though largely auto- 
matic, is well-nigh exhaustive. Awareness, and At- 
tention, are illustrated copiously; but not clearly 
differentiated as they may be, and actually are in 
the experience of individual life. 

Fortunately, and wisely, he eliminates the " Sub- 
conscious " as having no real meaning or scientific 
value as now used. 

But it might be applied to the Mental awareness 
of physiological automatism (bodily habits, often 
beginning in an act of will, or attention; writing, 
speaking, music, dancing, and the like, and in less 
degree, all life impulses and movements below the 
line of attention or awareness) . 



98 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

If, by courtesy, these might be called sub-con- 
scious, then there is another group above the 
habitual plane of awareness, that, by equal courtesy, 
might be called Supra-conscious. But, unless it is 
remembered, as Miinsterberg points out, that, re- 
gardless of phenomena, Consciousness is one, these 
terms can only lead to confusion. 

Certain cases designated " multiple " or " dis- 
sociated personalities " have only served to increase 
this confusion still further; and more especially, 
when the effort has been made to patch them to- 
gether, or to control them from without, by hyp- 
nosis. The well-known case of " Sally," reported 
by Dr. Morton Prince, stands at last, as a " per- 
sonally conducted " psychological excursion, with 
Sally still preserving her incognito, and as much 
a mystery as ever. 

That automatism incident to all progressive or- 
ganization and perfection of function, and through 
which physical, physiological, mental, and psychic 
synthesis becomes possible, has been allowed to 
usurp the place of the " Builder of the Temple," 
the " Driver of the Chariot," and the " Player " upon 
the " Harp of a thousand strings." Harmony and 
equilibrium are incidents resulting from causative 
processes! We need only to know the construction, 
relations of parts, and principles involved in the 
vibrations of the Harp, in order to understand and 
appreciate the music. The player, the musician — 
drunk, or sober, tone-blind or genius — is a mere 
incident, and however 'purposive or competent, is 



THE MODULUS OF NATURE 99 

admitted by courtesy only, and warned not to inter- 
fere too much with the Harp! 

To build, and keep in order, and tune the Harp, 
constitutes the science of music. Some day, when 
we have leisure and inclination, we may turn our 
attention to the Musician, but that day seems far 
off. We admit that his function is purposive. He, 
no doubt, has designs on the Harp, and upon us, but 
we are handling musical instruments at present, 
and if he objects to our calling ourselves " Musi- 
cians " (psychologists) he is impertinent, and 
should study the science of music, or keep silent. 

I am not " begging the question " in regard to the 
human soul. I am simply emphasizing the fact of 
the Individual Intelligence, which, at the point of 
equilibrium, sweeps the strings with that harmony 
which is the soul of music. 

This Harp of a thousand strings, is indeed, " fear- 
fully and wonderfully made." Its physics and 
kinetics; its consonants and dissonants; its shifting 
keyboards; its changes in pitch, rhythm, and har- 
mony from atom and molecule, to neurons, cells and 
mass; with the tides of life — blood, plasma, water, 
air, magnetism — sweeping the whole at every breath 
or pulse beat, to the cry of the builder — Life — 
"out with the old! in with the new!" and yet the 
conscious identity in health, typically unchanged 
and unchanging — causative, designed, scientific — 
yea verily! and purposive, human, intelligent, 
spiritual, divine, but a dead corpse, given over to 
decomposition the moment it is bereft of that some- 



100 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

thing we feel, and know, and name — the Individual 
Intelligence — the Master Musician; or the stagger- 
ing, drunk, crazy fiddler, with this Harp of a thou- 
sand strings, twanging perhaps in a mad-house! 

Put the house in order; analyze, and classify; 
adjust the furniture with the handmaids of science, 
art, and beauty in evidence and at call; but for 
goodness' sake! stop hypnotizing the musician — 
" Just a little " — under the fallacy or the pretense of 
strengthening the Will by weakening it just a little 
more! This is "giving your patients fits, because 
you are death on fits " ! Rescue Science from this 
atheromatous degeneration, and then suppress the 
dabblers in " black magic " who pose as Hypnotists, 
as Miinsterberg advises. 

For clear intelligence and exhaustive analysis, 
Munsterberg's " Psychotherapy " is a masterpiece, 
but his psychic equation of causative and purposive, 
with all his mathesis, not only remains unsolved, 
but leads to confusion, from the false light shed on 
the unknown quantity, and his failure to indicate 
the gnosis; the demarcation between automatism 
and purposive Intelligence. 

That this confusion exists in the daily life of the 
average individual whose evolution is still incom- 
plete; that it constitutes a large per cent, of all 
cases of " dominant ideas," obsessions, riotous emo- 
tions and passions; that it is nowhere recognized 
and defined in modern psychology, or made synthet- 
ically clear in modern philosophy, all these lapses 
make it all the more necessary that it should be 



THE MODULUS OF NATURE 101 

clearly defined and made plain as the basis of 
Scientific Psychology. 

In addition to all this, if Miinsterberg's conclu- 
sions and applications are unsound because psy- 
chologically unscientific at the point; for example, 
where he almost hesitatingly indorses hypnosis, 
however qualified or safeguarded, he is certain to be 
quoted as authority on the subject by those who will 
ignore all his qualifications to justify the practice. 

In order to meet these imperative conditions, the 
attempt to formulate any philosophy of psychology 
will not be made. 

Even were such an attempt made successfully, 
that would remove the discussion from the field of 
science, where it should by all means remain. What 
we need is a real science of life, and this should 
involve the whole mental and psychical realm, and 
lead ultimately to a knowledge of the human soul. 

Recognized facts in common experience only 
need be appealed to, though different values will 
have to be placed upon some of these facts as their 
importance is made plain. 

We begin with the fact of consciousness. What 
it is, we do not know. What it means and does, 
we know very largely and broadly. In itself, it is 
purely passive. It never acts. Like space, it is the 
" all container." It is the background, the theatre 
of our intelligence. 

With the individual intelligence, plus, or with 
consciousness, we have awareness. This is percep- 
tion, or cognition, still negative. 



102 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

These basic conditions, faculties and capacities, 
are like a company of soldiers on parade. Now 
comes the " word of command " — Attention! 

Latent consciousness — awareness — now becomes 
concentrated, focalized on one point, one feeling, 
or emotion, or act. The soldiers " dress up," glance 
down the line, and are ready to act. Then comes 
the action, the movement, the drill, or the fight. 

The drill master is also a soldier, but he is in 
command. He is called the Will. Without him and 
his recognized authority, the soldiers may be a mob, 
or a rabble. With him, they " fall in line," give 
" attention," " dress up," and are ready to act. 

These are facts, and are basic and primary in our 
conscious awareness and attention in consciousness; 
the one negative, though inclusive; the other posi- 
tive, and motor, or active. , 

In his " Psychotherapy " under the heading " The 
Subconscious," Miinsterberg has much to say upon 
the meaning and differentiation of awareness, at- 
tention, and recognition, but he fails to point out in 
direct relation, at this point, the primary power — 
the Will, moved by the Individual Intelligence. 

Later in his work the will is recognized and 
frequently referred to, but from beginning to end 
he makes it incidental, rather than basic. When 
he comes to broad groups of psychic phenomena, or 
pathological symptoms, the sounding board of 
Rational Volition is cracked and there is where 
hypnosis slips in. 

Broad as he has laid his foundations in physical 



THE MODULUS OF NATURE 103 

and physiological synthesis, he loses sight of its 
importance in the psychological; regarding as an 
incident that which is a basic principle of prime 
importance. Schopenhauer went, perhaps, as far 
to the opposite extreme. Perhaps " the truth will 
be found in the middle of the road." 

The heir apparent, the prince regent, the lawful 
Sovereign, by heredity, by the laws of Nature, and 
" by the Will of God," in this Tabernacle of Man, 
is the Individual Intelligence; no matter whether 
we recognize or dispute his rightful authority. His 
Prime Minister is the Human Will; whether con- 
spiring against, or co-operating with, the King. 
We may analyze the foundation of the kingdom, 
and the affairs of state, and designate them as 
causative, or purposive. We may see monarchy, or 
anarchy; democracy or republicanism; we may de- 
throne the king, and turn the state, literally, into 
a mad-house; but all the facts of nature, conscious 
awareness, and Scientific Psychology, cry, with one 
voice, Hail to the King! Long Live the King! 
I! Me! Mine! Myself! A fact so basic, that 
it is as patent to the child as to the man. 

Now comes the Juggler, the little Joker. Miin- 
sterberg has sufficiently revealed the variety-stage, 
" the Subconscious," and his biography of the va- 
rious individual players and troupes is very elabo- 
rate. They are, one and all, Suggestions. And 
suggestion is the " Juggler," and the " little 
Joker." 

After the Intelligence and the Will, our aware- 



104 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

ness finds subjects and objects, ideas, images, pic- 
tures, percepts and concepts. 

That all these, both within and without, are 
Suggestive; that one idea, or image, or object, 
suggests another, or others, no one will deny, who 
has ever thought about his own thinking. It is like 
saying, all mental pictures are composite; the ele- 
ments of many kinds coming from many sources. 

So far, Suggestion is all right. It is awareness 
of an idea, percept, concept, or act awakened, called 
to attention by another, with the question, how 
does it strike you? what do you think of it? what, 
if anything, do you wish, or propose to do about it? 

It is purely negative, and suggests action or 
inhibition, without the slightest domination. 

Remember that the Will — rational Volition — is 
that power, which, from the point of attention 
enables the individual to act, or refuse to consider, 
as he pleases. 

If I suggest to my friend here in my library, that 
it is near train time; that he can go if he chooses or 
remain with me all night, he is free to act on the sug- 
gestion and go or stay as he chooses. I have called 
to his attention certain facts of time, place, or cir- 
cumstance, but left his will untrammeled. If I am 
tired of him and wish him to go, or really wish him 
to stay, in either case it is still a suggestion, be- 
cause I have left him free to act or not. But in 
this case certain tones of my voice, not direct by 
touching the will, but coloring the feelings or emo- 
tions, color both his preferences and my own. Even 



THE MODULUS OF NATURE 105 

persuasion, the power of another example, the plac- 
ing of certain views or considerations before another, 
all these but make the more clear and specific the 
suggestion. They reach the will through the inside, 
in the realm of ideation, and not from the outside, 
in the way of domination. All these things are 
essential elements in social intercourse. 

If, however, I have a motive in wishing my 
friend to go, or to stay, and have determined in my 
own mind which it shall be; ignoring or overriding 
his own choice; and if I use my will, or passes, or 
touch his eyes, or forehead, with the purpose of 
concentrating his attention or will, on my wish, or 
idea, or command, it is no longer free choice with 
him, but domination; no longer suggestion, but 
hypnosis, pure and simple. 

The confusion and juggling at this point has been 
made the sole excuse for hypnotism, through be- 
littling or ignoring the importance, normal action, 
and supremacy of the human will. 

No one denies that the exchange or forcible ex- 
pression of ideas, percepts, mental pictures, or con- 
cepts, is suggestive. But the normal individual is 
free to accept or reject them. 

Education, bias, prejudice, and the like, have 
also much to do in determining results. 

But the moment you interfere with the free 
choice of the individual and dominate toward your 
choice, regardless of his own, you enter the realm 
of hypnosis; deprive him, just to that degree, of 
free choice, and might as well call it " fiddlesticks " 



106 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

as " suggestion." It is domination, the mastery, 
so far as it goes or exists at all, of the will, voluntary- 
powers, and sensory organs of one individual, by the 
will of another; thus reversing completely the pro- 
cess of nature. 

To dominate the will of another is to weaken it. 
Timidity, apprehension, fear, are in inverse ratio 
to confidence, self-assurance, courage, and self- 
control. 

Health, happiness, and self-development lie 
along the lines of man's higher evolution, and the 
basic principle, the primary power, the minister of 
state, is the rational and intelligent Will. 

The scientific theorem of Psychology can be 
nothing else than Nature's Modulus of Man, with 
its root in Universal Intelligence. Man individu- 
alizes and involves this Intelligence as he evolves 
form, function, adaptation, and adjustment, and at 
least secures and maintains perfect equilibrium. 

This is Nature's Modulus, else the whole of human 
life is purposeless and meaningless. 

Given, then, an Individual Intelligence, endowed 
with self-consciousness; with Rational Volition, the 
power to choose and to act or refuse to act; how 
shall it master its environment; adapt itself to any 
conditions; secure adjustment and become Master? 

The starting point and the keynote from first 
to last is Self-Control. 

Then come high Ideals, intelligent choice, and the 
will backed by discrimination and judgment. These 
lead to understanding and wisdom. 



THE MODULUS OF NATURE 107 

The " courage of one's convictions," can be 
neither conceited nor blatant egotism, but a readi- 
ness to assume full responsibility of motives, acts, 
and results. 

This recognition of Personal Responsibility is 
what we call Conscience. It is the Judgment-seat 
of the Individual Intelligence in the Kingdom of its 
own Soul, or realm of consciousness. The moment 
this throne totters, or is obscured, devolution begins, 
and degeneration, insanity, and Inferno lie that way. 

It does not change one principle involved, or 
weaken either Modulus or Theorem when we reflect 
that most equations are ended by death, long be- 
fore being brought to successful solution. For the 
time they are certainly interrupted. 

Neither do the babel of tongues, the theories, 
theologies, or philosophies change either Modulus 
or Theorem, because they are grounded in demon- 
strated facts, recognized, either vaguely or clearly, 
in the conscious experience of every intelligent 
thinking man and woman. 

Constructive Psychology, based upon Science, for 
the building of character by persistent effort, in- 
creasing continually all personal resources, means 
the normal higher evolution of man. 

So-called religions and the life after death have 
been purposely left unconsidered. 

If we really have a Science of the Soul — the In- 
dividual Intelligence — based upon psychological 
facts, demonstrated in the daily experience of every 
healthy individual, it touches religion at its most 



108 STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY 

vital point, viz.: ethics or morals. If these ethical 
principles are true and demonstrable, they must 
constitute the foundation of religion as of ethics. 
If morals are strengthened and made clear, and 
Personal Responsibility as Conscience, is recognized 
and accepted, the Vicarious Atonement will have 
to go, and Theologians will have to change their 
mystical and miraculous interpretations from Vica- 
rious Atonement to personal at-one-ment with 
Christos. 

The " miraculous conception," and " virgin birth," 
held equally in regard to Christna centuries before, 
and also the literal resurrection of the physical 
body will have to be otherwise explained. 

The purposive view as one full term of the 
psychological equation, will find uniform law and 
order in place of the credulous legends of ignorant 
and superstitious monks, while the Divine Man will 
be taken down from the cross and restored to the 
heart of humanity, as the Modulus of Nature, 
realized as a normal evolution, under natural and 
spiritual law. 

Salvation from sin, ignorance, superstition, and 
fear, will be recognized as the result of " Leading 
the Life," and Vicarious only through a divine 
example; or, if you please, legitimate Suggestion; 
with personal effort, rational volition, and personal 
responsibility working in harmony toward the de- 
sired result. 



THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL 
SCIENCE 



CHAPTER VIII 
OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 

IT is more than thirty years since in Southern 
Europe, England, and America, a genuine 
Renaissance of Vedic literature, philosophy, and 
religion began to assume a popular form and to 
become accessible to the general reading public. 

Scholars, like Sir William Jones, had for the 
past century been familiar with the ancient civiliza- 
tion and the Vedic literature and the study of San- 
scrit had made some progress in the Universities. 

The idea, however, that these antiquities had any 
vital interest to us, beyond curious myths and obso- 
lete superstitions, had not been perceived, much less 
admitted. 

The antiquity of man, and the Philosophy of 
Evolution, had opened new fields for thought, and 
necessitated a revision of all previous concepts of 
man and nature. 

Old records and interpretations were everywhere 
revised, and the interpretations of the Mosaic 
records were challenged at every point. 

Popular religions were up in arms and were 
compelled to adjust themselves to the new regime. 

But even after this century of progress and en- 
lightenment, it has scarcely yet dawned on the mind 

in 



112 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

of theologians that the challenge of science was, 
after all, insignificant, compared with that which 
was to come, and for which modern science had 
paved the way. 

The whole realm of theology, and the foundations 
of religion, were to undergo revision. 

Facts incontestable were being gathered and proofs 
established beyond all possible denial, or controversy, 
that all modern theologies and religions were copied 
and adapted from Vedic and ante-Vedic sources, 
antedating our present era by more than two 
thousand years. 

The superficial and devout churchman, whose 
faith is fortified on the one hand by superstition, and 
on the other at least borders on fanaticism, is apt 
to be resentful in the presence of these facts, and, 
falling back on the infallibility and plenary inspira- 
tion of the Bible, to declare that if his own super- 
ficial interpretations are questioned or denied, Re- 
ligion will be done for and mankind left in utter 
darkness. 

He does not perceive that the facts of nature 
and the essentials of religion are one thing, and 
man's interpretation of them another thing entirely. 

He does not perceive how these ignorant and 
superstitious interpretations of men have set at 
naught the real life of Jesus and the teachings of 
the Christ. 

He does not realize how doctrine has usurped 
the place of duty, and dogmatism has hardened 
the soul of man. 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 113 

One thing, however, is inevitable. Facts and 
evidence as to origin, analogies, and adaptation 
of the Christian Mysteries from ancient India, 
are widely known, and the time has come 
when these mysteries are being examined as to 
their intrinsic meaning and their bearing on the 
daily life of man and the progress of the human 
race. 

The author of this little book has only attempted 
a bare outline of these great facts, and to put them 
in such shape that the reader may perceive their 
general bearing, and the sources whence they are 
derived. 

The following extracts made almost at random, 
the quantity of evidence being so redundant, from 
Jacolliot's " Bible in India," a translation of which 
was made in this country as early as 1873, and Prof. 
Max Miiller's Lectures, "India, What Can It Teach 
Us? " printed here more than a quarter of a century 
ago, will give the reader the evidence and the 
assurance that these ancient sources of wisdom are 
scarcely yet known in outline to the Western 
World. 

Jacolliot spent many years in India, studying its 
present civilization and its ancient lore, while Prof. 
Max Muller derived his knowledge largely from 
study of Sanscrit and the Vedanta. 

" Soil of Ancient India, cradle of humanity, hail! 
Hail, venerable and efficient nurse, whom centuries 
of brutal invasion have not yet buried under the dust 
of oblivion! Hail, fatherland of faith, of love, of 



114 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

poetry, and of science. May we hail a revival of thy 
past in our Western future. 

" I have dwelt 'midst the depths of your mysterious 
forests, seeking to comprehend the language of your 
lofty nature, and the evening airs that murmured 
'midst the foliage of banyans and tamarinds whis- 
pered to my spirit these three magic words: Zeus, 
Jehovah, Brahma. 

" I have inquired of Brahmins and priests under 
the porches of temples and ancient pagodas, and 
they have replied: 

To live is to think, and to think is to study 
God, who is all, and in all. . . . 

To live is to learn, to learn is to examine and 
to fathom in all their perceptible forms the in- 
numerable manifestations of celestial power. 

' To live is to be useful; to live is to be just; 
and we learn to be useful and just in studying this 
book of the Vedas, which is the word of eternal 
wisdom, the principle of principles as revealed to 
our fathers.' " (" The Bible in India," p. 15.) 

Plotinus, the Neoplatonist, said: " God is not the 
principal of beings, but the principle of principles." 

This was the Hindoo concept of Para Brahm 
two thousand years before. 

" In the whole world there is no study so bene- 
ficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. 
It has been the solace of my life — it will be the 
solace of my death. [Schopenhauer, quoted by 
Max Miiller.] ... If I were to look over the 
whole world to find out the country most richly 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 115 

endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that 
nature can bestow — in some parts a very paradise 
on earth — I should point to India. If I were 
asked under what sky the human mind had most 
fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most 
deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, 
and has found solutions of some of them which well 
deserve the attention even of those who have studied 
Plato and Kant — I should point to India. And if 
I were to ask myself from what literature we, here 
in Europe, we who have been nurtured almost ex- 
clusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, 
and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw 
that corrective which is most wanted in order to 
make our inner life more perfect, more compre- 
hensive, more universal, in fact more truly human, 
a life, not for this life only, but a transfigured and 
eternal life — again I should point to India." 

The reader should remember that this is not the 
opinion of an ignorant enthusiast, but the mature 
judgment of one of the most profound scholars 
and Sanscritists in Europe in his day — Prof. Max 
Miiller. 

" The study of Mythology has assumed an 
entirely new character, chiefly owing to the light 
that has been thrown on it by the ancient Vedic 
Mythology of India. 

" Buddhism is now known to have been the 
principal source of our legends and parables." 

The story of the two women who claimed each 
to be the mother of the same child is found literally 



116 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

in the Kanjur, translated from the Buddhist Tripi- 
take, and the " Judgment of Solomon " is only a 
copy of the older story. 

" The history of all histories, and yet the mystery 
of all mysteries — take religion, and where can you 
study its true origin, its natural growth and its 
inevitable decay better than in India, the home of 
Brahmanism, the birthplace of Buddhism, and the 
refuge of Zoroastrianism. 

" Take any of the burning questions of the day — 
popular education, higher education, parliamentary 
representation, codification of laws, finance, emigra- 
tion, poor-law, and whether you have anything to 
teach and to try, or anything to observe and to learn, 
India will supply you with a laboratory such as 
exists nowhere else. 

" And in the study of the history of the human 
mind, and the study of ourselves, of our true selves, 
India occupies a place second to no other country. 
Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select 
for your special study, whether it be language, or 
religion, or mythology, or philosophy, whether it 
be laws or customs, primitive art or primitive 
science, everywhere, you have to go to India, 
whether you like it or not, because some of the 
most valuable and most instructive materials in the 
history of man are treasured up in India, and in 
India only. 

" Sleeman tells us men (in India) adhere habit- 
ually and religiously to the truth, and ' I have had 
before me hundreds of cases,' he says, ' in which a 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 117 

man's property, liberty, and life have depended 
upon his telling a lie, and he has refused to tell it.' 
Could many an English judge say the same? " 
(Remarks by Prof. Muller.) 

Prof. Muller quotes from an Arabian writer of 
the thirteenth century, " The Indians are innum- 
erable, like grains of sand, free from all deceit and 
violence. They fear neither death nor life." 

And again, from Marco Polo, in the thirteenth 
century, " You must know, Marco Polo says, that 
these Abralaman (Hindoos) are the best merchants 
in the world, and the most truthful, for they would 
not tell a lie for anything on earth." 

" In the sixteenth century Abu Fazl, the minister 
of the Emperor Akbar, says in his ' Ayin Akbari,' 
' The Hindus are religious, affable, cheerful, lovers 
of justice, given to retirement, able in business, ad- 
mirers of truth, grateful and of unbounded fidelity, 
and their soldiers know not what it is to fly from 
the field of battle.' " 

(How badly these "poor heathen" were in need 
of the Jesuit missionary, and the British government 
and civilization!) 

Prof. Muller quotes Warren Hastings regarding 
the Hindus in general, as follows, " They are gentle 
and benevolent, more susceptible of gratitude for 
kindness shown them, and less prompted to venge- 
ance for wrongs inflicted, than any people on 
the face of the earth — faithful, affectionate, sub- 
missive to legal authority." 

Bishop Heber said, " The Hindus are brave, 



118 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

courteous, intelligent, most eager for knowledge and 
improvement, sober, industrious, dutiful to parents, 
affectionate to their children, uniformly gentle and 
patient, and more easily affected by kindness and 
attention to their wants and feelings than any 
people I ever met with." 

Elphinstone said, " No set of people among the 
Hindus are so depraved as the dregs of our own 
great towns." (It might have been wiser to have 
employed English missionaries at home.) 

Sir Thomas Munro bears even stronger testimony. 
He writes, " If a good system of agriculture, un- 
rivaled manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce 
whatever can contribute to either convenience or lux- 
ury, schools established in every village for teaching 
reading, writing and arithmetic, the general prac- 
tice of hospitality, and charity among each other, 
and above all, a treatment of the female sex full 
of confidence, respect, and delicacy, are among the 
signs which denote a civilized people — then the 
Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe — 
and if civilization is to become an article of trade 
between England and India, I am convinced that 
England will gain by the import cargo. 

" Even at the present moment, after a century 
of English rule and English teaching, I believe 
that Sanskrit is more widely understood in India, 
than Latin was in Europe at the time of Dante. 

" There are thousands of Brahmans, even now, 
when so little inducement exists for Vedic studies, 
who know the whole of the Rig- Veda by heart, 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 119 

and can repeat it, and what applies to the Rig- Veda, 
applies to many other books." (Ten thousand and 
seventeen hymns.) 

Speaking of other and later literature, Prof. 
Miiller says, "It is different with the ancient litera- 
ture of India, the literature dominated by the Vedic 
and Buddhistic religions. That literature opens to 
us a chapter in what has been called the Education 
of the Human Race, to which we can find no parallel 
anywhere else. Whoever cares for the historical 
growth of our language, that is, of our thoughts; 
whoever cares for the intelligible development of 
religion and mythology; whoever cares for the first 
foundation of what in later times we call the sciences 
of astronomy, metronomy, grammar and etymology; 
whoever cares for the first intimations of philosoph- 
ical thought; for the first attempts at regulating 
family life, village life, and state life, as founded 
on religion, ceremonial, tradition and contact 
(Samaya), must in future pay the same attention 
to the literature of the Vedic period as to the litera- 
ture of Greece and Rome and Germany. 

" I maintain then that for a study of man, or, if 
you like, for a study of Aryan humanity, there is 
nothing in the world equal in importance with the 
Veda. 

" The aristocracy of those who know — di color 
che sanno — or try to know, is open to all who are 
willing to enter, to all who have a feeling for the 
past; an interest in the genealogy of our thoughts, 
and a reverence for the ancestry of our intellect, who 



120 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

are, in fact, historians in the true sense of the word, 
i.e. inquirers into that which is past, but not lost. 

" But if we mean by primitive the people who 
have been the first of the Aryan race to leave be- 
hind literary relics of their existence on earth, 
then I say the Vedic poets are primitive; the 
Vedic language is primitive; the Vedic religion is 
primitive, and, taken as a whole, more primitive 
than anything else that we are ever likely to re- 
cover in the whole history of our race. . . . 

" For this reason, because the religion of the 
Veda was so completely guarded from all strange 
infection, it is full of lessons which the student of 
religion could learn nowhere else. " 

The foregoing quotations have been made from a 
little volume, "India: What Can It Teach Us?" 
published by Funk and Wagnalls* in 1883, and sold 
at 25 cents, so that these statements of Prof. Max 
Miiller have been accessible for more than a quarter 
of a century. 

Since 1883, however, we have heard more and 
more of the " Wisdom of Old India." 

The whole Theosophical movement, degenerate as 
it may have become in some directions, and much 
as it has been misinterpreted, and ridiculed and 
exploited in others, was primarily a sincere and 
earnest attempt " to bring the Secret Doctrine of 
ancient India within reach of Western students," to 
promote the brotherhood of man; the study of an- 
cient philosophy and the psychical powers latent in 
man." There are thousands of intelligent and 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 121 

earnest students all over the world who have been 
uplifted, illuminated, and encouraged by these 
studies. When the true history of the present epoch 
comes to be written, there can be no shadow of 
doubt as to the recognition that will be accorded to 
H. P. Blavatsky and her aims, her life, and her 
work. 

But such movements as are going on in the 
world, continually change their base, their methods, 
and their prospective. While the new awakening 
unmistakably goes back to old India, and compels a 
review and a readjustment of all our knowledge, 
and all our hopes and aims, another spirit has 
entered our intellectual realm, and compelled atten- 
tion and recognition. 

It has made for itself a habitation and a name, 
and nothing less than a cataclysm can altogether 
overthrow it. 

It is the Genius of Scientific Criticism, Research, 
and Demonstration. 

The " Mistakes of Moses " may indeed be paral- 
leled by those of modern physical science, and these 
are being revealed side by side with those of theology 
and dogmatic assertion. 

It has hardly yet dawned upon the mind of the 
physical scientist that the concept of the psychical 
and spiritual life and nature of man comprises, 
with the world of matter and form, a complete 
theorem of human life. He is often as incredulous, 
resentful, and contemptuous as the creed-bound 
religionist at the approach of more light, and the 



122 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

suggestion that all these essential problems were 
included and solved ages ago in ancient Aryavarta; 
and that " the few who know," the ancient order 
of the Illuminati, now designated the " School of 
Natural Science," has treasured this knowledge for 
ages. 

The Vedas are not only ancient, but complicated 
and diffuse, and the busy life of the modern student 
will hardly suffice for the mastery of their wisdom, 
or the understanding of their secrets. 

When, however, this ancient wisdom is condensed 
and epitomized, in perfect harmony with the con- 
cepts, the methods, and the demonstrations of 
Natural Science, the " Jewel in the Lotus," — to use 
a Vedic synonym, — will appear in all its beauty and 
glory, to all who have eyes to see, and ears to 
hear, with determination to " honor every truth by 
use," and loyal service. 

In the foregoing quotations it may be seen what 
this real knowledge did for the people of ancient 
India in building character on constructive lines, 
promoting justice, equity, charity, and kindness 
among the common people, and the teeming millions 
of India, when our Saxon and Norman ancestors 
were still barbarians, and before the Jew or the 
Christian were even dreamed of. 

In the following quotations from Jacolliot's 
" Bible in India," an outline will be given as to the 
source of some of our myths, pantheons, and 
religions. 

These brief and imperfect outlines from two small 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 123 

and generally forgotten books, ought to satisfy any 
intelligent and unbiased student how completely the 
general thesis may be demonstrated from the ancient 
records themselves. 

The books from which these quotations are made 
are like kindergarten primers for the use of be- 
ginners. 

The present writer's interest in and study of 
Theosophy and the Secret Doctrine were instigated 
by Schopenhauer's ; ' World as Will and Idea." 
He found how largely Schopenhauer had drawn 
from the Upanishads (see previous quotation), and 
how little, after all, his " Philosophy " had utilized 
the ancient Wisdom. Hence he resolved to seek 
the ancient sources of knowledge, and has been try- 
ing his best to apprehend and utilize them, the 
hoarded wisdom of the ages. 

He is not in the least anxious to gain recognition 
for, or to seek to rehabilitate old India, for its own 
sake. She speaks for herself, through the centuries 
of the past, and will continue to speak and to influ- 
ence all coming time. 

Jacolliot shows, however, a little irritation at this 
point over the suppression of facts, the brutality of 
marauding invaders, and the wholesale and brazen 
appropriation without the least credit to India's 
store of wisdom. 

The present writer is, however, exceedingly 
desirous that his fellow-students in the West should 
discover, recognize, and utilize this ancient mine of 
wisdom for themselves. 



124 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

Its day of recognition is just now at the dawn, 
and the most pressing problems concerning the real 
nature, the spiritual possibilities, and the eternal 
destiny of the soul of man, are pressing and burn- 
ing questions to-day. 

That these problems do not wait solution by 
modern physical science and physio-psychology, but 
await only the understanding and acceptance of 
every earnest and intelligent student, is easily 
demonstrated. It challenges the world to-day, as 
it has not done before for many millenniums, and 
the issues are to be tried out to a scientific demon- 
stration. 

The preferences and prejudices of partisans will 
not be consulted, nor will they in the least interrupt 
the progress, nor interfere with the solution. 

The question is no longer, " What think ye of 
Jesus?" but "What know ye of your own 
soul?" A new faith will supersede the old super- 
stitions. 

Faith, from the viewpoint of Natural Science, is 
" the soul's intuitive conviction of that which both 
reason and conscience approve." Blind faith, or 
belief, is ever the handmaid of superstition. The 
new faith is the harbinger, the promise, and the 
potency of knowledge, the anchor of the soul, and 
the armor of righteousness. 

This is indeed the language of confidence, and it 
should be put to the test of science and experience. 

The scornful and the contemptuous are not even 
invited! They are left alone with their Idols. 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 125 

Coming now more directly to the splendid work 
of Jacolliot, one thing I think ought to be apparent 
to every honest and intelligent reader of " The 
Bible in India," and that is, that its author is in 
no sense a partisan of Hinduism, but a searcher 
and witness for the simple Truth as he finds and 
apprehends it. 

He puts aside mystery, miracle, and Divine 
Revelation, as dispassionately in the Vedic, Brah- 
manical, and Buddhistic cults, as in the Mosaic and 
Christian. Belief in God, and reverence for Truth 
in the light of reason and conscience, shine from 
every page of his work. 

To flippantly call him an " atheist," or a " de- 
stroyer of holy things," as though that were in any 
sense an answer to his thesis, and which formerly 
was the rule, and may even now be attempted in 
certain quarters, will simply brand the bigot as 
by no means intelligent — if indeed honest — who at- 
tempts it. The majority of such sectarians have 
grown wise or prudent enough to ignore all such 
issues. 

There has been a great change in public senti- 
ment since Jacolliot went to India as an earnest 
student of these subjects, and in the nearly forty 
years since he wrote this book. 

The saying that " Truth passes through three 
phases before being accepted," specially applies 
here. First, people say, "It is not true." Second, 
" It contradicts Scripture," and when it at last is 
triumphant, that " Everybody knew it before" 



126 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

The truths of which Jacolliot writes have already 
reached at least the beginning of the third stage. 
Of course, " Everybody " here means those who 
read, and think, and dare to use conscience and 
reason. 

In referring to a religious debate between a mis- 
sionary and a Brahman, and the universal interest 
manifested among all classes as to the outcome of 
the encounter, " hooting the vanquished in either 
case with strict impartiality," Jacolliot adds, " We 
shall be less surprised at this when it is known 
that there is not a Hindoo, whatever his rank or 
caste, who does not know the principles of the 
Holy Scripture, that is, the Vedas, and who does 
not perfectly know how to read and write." 

Three hundred and forty millions of people, 
thousands of them pariahs and outcasts, sharing 
refuse with the dogs, with no rights that any one 
else is bound to respect, bowing their faces in the 
dust when a Brahman passes ten paces away — and 
yet everyone can read and write! 

Max Miiller said he had had in his study at 
Oxford a young Hindoo who could repeat the whole 
of the Mahabharata without missing a word or an 
inflection from beginning to end. 

These are some of the remnants in the decline of 
old India after thousands of years of Brahman rule 
and slavish domination of the people to preserve 
their own exclusive caste and exploitation. West- 
ern people have yet to learn the inevitable tendency, 
and the invariable rule of exploitation of the people, 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 127 

b}^ a dominant priesthood, and the poverty and 
degradation of the masses that always results. 
It has never once failed in this result in three 
thousand years. 

The whole of Southern Europe is already awaken- 
ing to a realization of this result to-day. It is 
accomplished in the name of " Religion " by those 
who call themselves ' Viceregents of God," and 
who arrogantly trample on the rights of conscience, 
and the freedom of man. 

Brahmanism first set the example as originators 
of this slavish abomination. 

The studies and investigations of Jacolliot in 
India, go back to the Vedic or pre-Brahmanic age; 
then to the rise, development, and slow decline of 
Brahmanism; then the epoch of Christna; the in- 
fluence of Buddha, and his being driven out of 
India by the powerful Brahmans; and finally, to 
the present poverty and degradation of the millions 
through foreign invasion and domination. 

The ruling Brahmans had neither thought nor 
desire for Constructive Nationality. In their pride 
and lust for power and gold, even in their just 
pride over their inheritance from Vedic ancestors, 
and wisdom, Patriotism was unknown to them. 
Invaders contended with them in robbing and en- 
slaving the people. 

The people who despised and hated the foreign 
invader dare not, even yet, to rise against their 
real despoilers — the Brahmans — or defy or break 
their power. 



128 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

It is the Vedic literature, and the earliest, or 
pre-Brahmanic time that Jacolliot lauds so highly, 
and in which he finds and demonstrates, the exist- 
ence of the sources of all human knowledge. 

It will be ignorant folly, therefore, for the bigot 
and the sectarian to attempt to answer or oppose 
him, by referring to the condition of the people 
of India as it is to-day. 

Jacolliot simply shows the causes that have led 
to the present degradation. 

It is priestcraft, despite the Vedic wisdom, and 
the missions and teaching of Christna and Buddha. 

All this Jacolliot demonstrates beyond all con- 
troversy. 

The bulk of his work consists in demonstrating 
the source of Greek and Roman Mythology, Lan- 
guage, Law, Philosophy, etc., and equally of every 
Jewish and Christian doctrine and tradition. 

Jacolliot shows that as the French code is copied 
or adapted from the Justinian, so equally the Jus- 
tinian was derived from that of Manu, many cen- 
turies previously. And what is true of Law is 
equally true of philosophy, theology, morals, and the 
principles of science, art, architecture, and all the 
rest. 

The Hindoos were demoralized by the priests, but 
the moral degradation extended even to them, and 
the arms they employed were turned against 
themselves. 

" The first result of the baneful domination of 
priests in India was the abasement and moral 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 129 

degradation of woman, so respected and honored 
during the Vedic period. 

" If you would reign over the persons of slaves, 
over brutalized intelligence, the history of these in- 
famous epochs presents a means of unequaled sim- 
plicity. Degrade and demoralize the woman, and 
you will soon have made of man a debased creature, 
without energy to struggle against the darkest 
despotisms; for, according to the fine expres- 
sion of the Vedas, " the woman is the soul of hu- 
manity." 

As did the Brahman priesthood, when through 
greed and ambition they forsook the ancient wis- 
dom, so do the priesthood of Rome, with their 
celibacy added to the abominations and oppor- 
tunities of the confessional. 

Search the records of all time, and the traditions 
and customs of every people, and you will find 
nowhere else such recognition and reverence paid 
to woman as in the early Vedic days. 

" Let it be well understood," says Jacolliot, " that 
it was but sacerdotal influence and Brahminical 
decay that, in changing the primitive condition of 
the East, reduced woman to a state of subordination 
which has not yet disappeared from our social 
system. 

" Let us read these maxims taken at hazard from 
the sacred books of India." (I quote only a few.) 
" Man is strength — woman is beauty ; he is the 
reason that governs, but she is the wisdom that 
moderates; the one cannot exist without the other, 



130 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

and hence the Lord created them two, for the one 
purpose. 

" He who despises woman, despises his mother. 

" Who is cursed by a woman, is cursed by God. 

" The tears of woman call down the fire of heaven 
on those who make them flow- 

" The songs of women are sweet in the ears of 
the Lord; men should not, if they wish to be heard, 
sing the praise of God without women. 

" Women should be protected with tenderness, 
and gratified with gifts, by all who wish for length 
of days. 

" It was at the prayer of a woman that the 
Creator pardoned man; cursed be he who forgets 
it." (See the Vedic "Garden of Eden.") 

Moses, trained only in the decay of the old 
religion by the degenerate priests of Egypt, while 
drawing his legend of creation from the ancient 
Vedic source, reverses all this and places the blame 
of the " Fall " on woman, and the women of the 
Bible are more often concubines and prostitutes 
than Love's pure evangels as in the ancient days. 
Jacolliot proves this from many citations, as witness 
also the following: (Numbers, Chapter XXI.) 

" And Moses was enraged against the chief offi- 
cers of the army, against the tribunes, and the cen- 
turions who returned from battle. 

" And he said unto them, Why have you saved 
the women and the children? 

" Slay therefore all the males amongst the chil- 
dren, and the women who have been married. 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 131 

" But reserve for yourselves all the young girls 
who are still virgins." 

Moses spoke " in the name of God," as does his 
Holiness at Rome to-day. Comment is hardly 
necessary. A few more quotations from the Vedas: 

" A virtuous woman needs no purification, for 
she is never defiled, even by contact with impurity. 

" Women should be shielded by fostering solici- 
tude by their fathers, their brothers, their husbands, 
and the brothers of their husbands, if they hope 
for great prosperity. 

" When women are honored, the divinities are 
content, but where they are not honored, all under- 
takings fail." 

The sacerdotal caste in Egypt followed the in- 
spiration of the Brahmans, and took care to make 
no change in that situation. 

And Moses followed the example of the priests 
of Egypt, where woman was a slave or a prostitute 
in the temples as out. 

The degeneracy of a people, the decay of religion, 
and the degradation of woman are inseparable, and 
it is so-called " religion " that institutes the change, 
and sets the pace, " down the steep descent." 

The Brahmans " forgot God " and instituted the 
worship of saints and holy men, and mythological 
characters, just as Rome does to-day. The women 
of America to-day by a consensus of public opinion 
should make auricular confession disreputable. 

Excommunication, which is such a power in the 
hands of Rome, is merely a subterfuge and substi- 



132 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

tute for the degradation of " outcasts," and pariahs, 
instituted by the Brahman priests to terrify the 
disobedient and retain their power. 

If the reader cares to know the danger and the 
degradation to woman fostered and protected 
through the Confessional by the Celibate Roman 
priesthood, he should read " The History of Auricu- 
lar Confession," by De Lasteyrie, translated into 
English and printed in London in 1848. Now and 
then a Pope or a council undertook to institute re- 
form, but found, as in Spain, prostitution of women 
by priests through the confessional so widespread 
and universal that they more often gave up the 
attempt through fear of scandal and contempt for 
the Church itself. 

Lecky, in his " History of European Morals," 
records the case of " the abbot-elect of St. Augustine, 
at Canterbury, who in 1171 was found on investi- 
gation to have seventeen illegitimate children in a 
single village; or, an abbot of St. Pelayo, in Spain, 
who in 1180 was proved to have kept no less than 
seventy concubines; or Henry III, Bishop of Liege, 
who was deposed in 1274 for having sixty-five 
illegitimate children." (History of European Mor- 
als. P. 350.) 

If the reader remarks that " this is ancient his- 
tory," he should remember that a celibate priest- 
hood to-day have the same opportunity, through 
the secrecy and power of the Confessional, as ever. 

I have barely touched on this disgusting but all- 
important question on the general thesis of Jacolliot, 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 133 

viz. : " The first result of the baneful domination of 
priests in India was the abasement and moral 
degradation of woman." 

Rome, who derived her religious code from 
paganized Egypt, added celibacy to the oppor- 
tunities and inducements for the degradation of 
woman. Koine never attained the heights from 
which the Brahman priesthood plunged into de- 
bauchery. Even to-day in the festivals in the 
Brahman temples wholesale orgies of prostitution 
are sometimes found, as witnessed and recorded by 
Jacolliot. From the first, Brahman priests have 
married and reared families. Their degradation 
and debauchery, therefore, cannot be charged to 
their original " Divine Revelation," but to their 
corruption of it. 

I have given a few brief quotations among hun- 
dreds recorded by Jacolliot as to the respect and 
veneration accorded to woman in early Vedic times, 
and in the Laws of Manu. 

" The Brahman may not approach the altar of 
sacrifice but with a soul pure, in a body undefiled. 

" Spirituous liquors beget drunkenness, neglect of 
duty, and they profane prayer. 

" The antiquity of India stands forth to establish 
its priority of religious legislation in prohibiting to 
priests the use of spirituous liquors, and especially 
in forbidding the pleasures of love when they are 
about to offer sacrifice. 

" The woman whose words and thoughts and per- 
son are pure is a celestial balm. 



134 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

" Happy shall he be whose choice is approved by 
all the good. 

"It is ordained that a devotee shall choose a wife 
from his own class. 

" The Brahman who marries a woman who is not a 
virgin, who is a widow, or divorced by her husband, 
or who is not known as a virtuous woman, cannot be 
permitted to offer sacrifice, for he is impure, and 
nothing can cleanse him from his impurities." 

And Jacolliot adds, "It is not recorded, says 
the divine Manu, that a Brahman has ever, even by 
compulsion, married a girl of low class. 

" Let the Brahman espouse a Brahmine, says 
the Veda. 

" Let him take a well-formed virgin, of an agree- 
able name, of the graceful carriage of the swan, 
or of the young elephant, whose body is covered with 
light down, her hair fine, her teeth small, and her 
limbs charmingly graceful." 

Jacolliot compares these early Vedic injunctions 
with Leviticus, Chapter XXI, and the absurdities 
introduced by Moses as to a " crooked nose or a 
squint eye." 

Woman here in the West is just emerging from 
the slavery and degradation of ages, and she ought 
to know that that degradation was not the handicap 
of barbaric and undeveloped races, so far as the 
Aryan race is concerned, but a demoralization and 
degradation instituted by priests, in the name of 
religion, through which they have sought to rule the 
world, and so far as institutional religions are con- 



OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 135 

cerned, woman has had to progress in spite of 
them. 

Without the aid and influence of woman to-day, 
neither Protestant nor Roman Church could exist 
at all, as witness almost any Sabbath service where 
women outnumber men often ten to one. 

One day woman will be wise enough and brave 
enough to dictate terms, as she did ages ago in old 
Aryavarta. When that day comes, and the really 
Divine Motherhood planted in every true woman's 
soul is recognized by man and woman alike, God 
grant that she may thenceforth hold the fort till the 
Kali-Yuga is at full tide, and the Spiritual Evolu- 
tion of our present Humanity is fully accomplished. 

In the meantime the world will have learned to 
know Jesus, who and what he was, and how he 
became the Christ, and will have joined in his 
Divine Mission to man, as the teeming millions 
joined in old India under Christna ages ago. 



CHAPTER IX 
HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE 

THE history of every people, of all time, and 
of every religion of which we have any record, 
reveals a similar origin, course, and destiny. 

We of the present day have the advantage of 
these records upon which to institute comparisons, 
ascertain relations, and draw conclusions. 

True, the partisans and postulants of all these 
religions at the present day will claim exception 
in favor of their own cult, and regard as sacrilegious 
and profane any attempt to institute comparisons 
and draw general conclusions. 

Any attempt to persuade them of their error 
would be useless. 

The essentials of their religion will not be called 
in question, but on the other hand, they will find 
that it is impossible to escape from the habitual 
and universal tendencies in which they are involved. 

However veritable may have been the original 
revelations, the tendencies and habits of weaving 
around them the traditions and superstitions of 
folklore seem to have been inevitable and universal. 

It is the province of Science to ascertain the facts 
in any given case, to institute comparisons, and to 
draw deductions and generalizations dispassionately 
and relentlessly. 

136 



HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE 137 

It is thus that every tradition, superstition, creed, 
dogma, and revelation comes under review, and is 
placed on trial. 

True science has no preconceived notion, no fore- 
gone conclusion. Each subject examined must tell 
its own story and in its own way, and stand or fall 
measured by intrinsic evidence and revealed fact. 

To this tribunal every episode in the life of man 
and the history of the human race must at last 
come. 

What are the facts? What do they reveal and 
signify? 

To most religionists this method and aim of 
science seem as relentless and dogmatic as their own 
creed or dogmas. 

It is a sifting and discriminative process, that, 
while relentless, is in the end eminently Just, and 
in the end will be found to be the revealer of all 
that is essential and true in religion itself. 

In itself, science is not and never can be a religion. 

It is a method only, which, like a search-light, 
reveals all religions in all their essentials, and 
places them in their true light. 

Religion per se is an essential element in the 
nature and life of man and of the human race. 

Science is a method, a way of procedure in the 
intelligent mind of man in its search for truth. 

Religion is vital, essential, basic. It is born of the 
relation which inheres in the kinship of the individual 
intelligence to the Universal Spirit of Nature and of 
all life. 



138 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

Science is the intelligent and rational use of the 
mental powers of man. 

Religion is intuitional, spiritual perception, in- 
volving the heart, the affections. Man aspires, 
worships, adores, and by the light of Faith or 
intuitive conviction, recognizes that which he cannot 
explain and cannot get rid of if he tries. 

Science is the just weight and measure of things 
seen, and of the natural causes of phenomena. 

Religion — the evidence of things unseen. Re- 
ligion, as a fact,, can never be explained away by 
Science. 

The so-called science that assumes or undertakes 
to do that, is materialism and nescience. 

Superstition is the false interpretation of re- 
ligion, and folklore and tradition are the accretions 
that gather around the foundations and original 
revelations of religion, and lead at last to obscura- 
tion and the need of a new revelation. 

Each genuine new " revelation " is but the re- 
habilitation of the primeval religion in which accre- 
tions, false interpretations, and dogmatic assertions 
are cast aside. 

Religion represents man's endeavor to appre- 
hend and interpret the unseen; that "something 
more " and " something beyond " the visible, the 
sensuous, and the tangible. 

It is this conscious awareness of something more 
and something beyond the visible and the tangible, 
that furnishes man with a conception of God and 
of the human soul. This is a natural intuition, 



HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE 139 

inseparable from the awareness of self. It lies at 
the foundation like man's self-conscious identity, and 
can neither be explained nor explained away. 

Here lies the root of all religions. The imagery 
of man's imagination, in his effort to apprehend the 
unseen, and to formulate the unknown, gives rise 
to myths, allegory, tradition, folklore, and in the 
end, to superstition, creed, and dogma. 

Then come priestcraft, oppression, persecution. 
The death of religion, the deification of the revealer 
or Avatar ', and the substitution of the priesthood 
as of divine authority, in place of the revealer or the 
revelation. 

Jove, Orpheus, Jehovah, and at last Jesus, are 
enthroned beyond the clouds, and priest or church 
assume the earthly prerogative, speak in their place, 
assume dogmatic authority, promise heaven and 
happiness for obedience, and dire penalties for dis- 
obedience, and resort to persecution to maintain 
their authority. 

The traditions, mythologies, and folklore of all 
the past have thus arisen. The creeds and dogmas 
of the present constitute the effort of man to assume 
exclusive dominion, and to exercise divine authority 
over the masses of mankind. It is only another 
form of the ambition of individuals for wealth, fame 
or power, lifting them to a " class " above the toil- 
ing, suffering, and sorrowing masses. 

There are exceptional individuals all along the 
way, who conceive, hold, and exercise the spirit of 
the Master, and sink self in the service of man, and 



140 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

but for these the organized priesthood would be 
execrated by mankind long before. 

The organized church deifies, where the true 
disciple humanizes and helps mankind in the name 
and in the spirit of the Master. 

This is the spirit, the origin, the genius and the 
history of every Avatar, of Christna, and all the 
Buddhas, the Saviors and Redeemers of history. 

The orthodox Christian of to-day, whether Catho- 
lic or Protestant, will be likely to admit the fore- 
going outline except as it applies to his own religion. 
Whereas it is abundantly proven to-day regarding 
his own religion as nowhere else in history. 

The histories of former religions are vague, dis- 
tant, and so covered over by tradition, myth, and 
folklore, as to be difficult to trace. 

The beginnings, history, and progress of the 
Christian religion are comparatively nearer at hand, 
and the process above outlined readily demon- 
strable. 

Not only so, but the recognition of the facts and 
processes is everywhere in evidence. 

This fact, however, by no means ends the con- 
troversy. 

Traditions, creeds, and dogmas die hard, and 
fight to the last extremity. Nothing else known to 
man fights so desperately and dies so hard as an 
organized priesthood, and beyond this, they are 
upheld by the ignorance, superstition, the fear, and 
the faith of the masses. 

Their adherents often believe and assume that 



HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE 141 

they have discovered final truths, essential and un- 
alterable verities. They undertake to support and 
to maintain these by dogmatic authority, a holy 
book, a " thus sayeth the Lord." 

" There it is, down in black and white." No 
further evidence is required. 

To question such authority is to be damned. To 
believe, accept, and to conform, is to be saved. 

Difference of opinion and of interpretation in- 
evitably arise, even among those who dare not ques- 
tion the ultimate authority and genuineness of the 
original revelation. Hence arise sects, schisms, and 
theological warfare. 

Notwithstanding all this, the original revelation 
becomes a matter of thorough investigation and of 
criticism. 

The so-called " higher criticism " had already dis- 
covered errors in translation, and contradictions in 
interpretation, resulting in a revised edition " of 
the sacred books, while under the name " Pragma- 
tism" certain metaphysical writers and accredited 
teachers have undertaken to determine essential 
meanings and interpretations, and to submit reli- 
gious revelations, creeds, dogmas, and theologies to 
critical analysis. 

How far this analysis has gone, and how little of 
the original interpretation actually remains, only 
they are aware who keep abreast of current thought, 
and who with open mind care more for the simple 
truth than for custom, tradition, theologies, and the 
folklore of the past. 



142 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

Dogmatic theological authority is completely 
undermined, and its days are numbered. 1 

With the masses there is the habitual unrest, the 
feeling of uncertainty, the social upheaval, with the 
inevitable tendency to confusion and anarchy. A 
new religion is already in the formative stage, a 
new Avatar inevitable. 

It is to be less a repudiation than a revision and 
rehabilitation of the old religion. 

People everywhere are looking for the new reve- 
lation, for the coming of Christos, for the new 
Avatar, and few are aware that he is already 
here. 

It should be borne strictly in mind that in every 
instance in the past, the advent of the Avatar has 
been unattended by signs and wonders, has come 
upon the stage of human action in the most common- 
place way, and that myth, miracle, and folklore 
have followed as time went on. 

To the people of his time Jesus was the " son of 
the carpenter," whose family was obscure. He came 
" eating with publicans and sinners." 

Jesus, the demigod of to-day, was unknown and 
undreamed of in Galilee. Philo Judaeus seems never 
to have heard of him. 

What and who Jesus was, and what he did, is 
separated from what the church and theologians 
have made of him by a gulf that seems almost 
impassable, and yet this gulf has already been 
bridged and passed. 

1 See President Eliot's latest utterances. 



HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE 143 

The new Avatar has for its mission the rehabilita- 
tion of Jesus as he actually existed, divested of all 
myth and miracle, while the mission for which he 
came, and the doctrines for which he lived and died 
are to be completely restored to mankind in their 
purity. 

The old Hindoos would call this transformation a 
" reincarnation of Vishnu," a " new Avatar." 

It will mean Jesus the divine Man, the master, 
Christos, restored to the heart of Humanity from 
the mysticism and miracle of monks and theologies, 
from the superstitions and folklore of the multi- 
tude. 

This means a reconstruction and a restatement of 
the religion of Jesus. 

Jesus remaining what he actually was and is, it 
will be the province of Natural Science to explain 
and to demonstrate by natural and spiritual law, 
how, without mystery or miracle, Jesus became the 
Master Christos and so remains to-day. 

Natural Science is not the invention of man, more 
than is the law of gravitation, the law of equilibrium, 
or the binomial theorem. Man may discover these 
laws from the phenomena of Nature, and demon- 
strate their existence and mode of operation like 
any others. 

It is a question of dispassionate and intelligent 
apprehension and demonstration. 

All actual progress of man up to the present 
time lies along these lines. Beyond this all is con- 
jecture and guesswork. Natural Science, however, 



144 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

is far more than modern physical science so-called. 
It includes physical, mental, moral, and spiritual 
science. 

Its methods everywhere and at all times are the 
same. 

It may theorize, but never, dogmatize, and it must 
demonstrate at every step. Facts must not only 
support the theorem, but demonstrate the con- 
clusions as inevitable, and the basis of all such actual 
demonstration must be a verifiable individual ex- 
perience, with formulated laws and processes for its 
repetition, just as in physical science, in chemistry, 
and mathematics. Nothing less than this on any 
plane or in any department of investigation can 
enable the individual to declare "I Know," 

Demonstration is the sign manual of knowledge; 
Dogmatism the arrogance of ignorance. 

It is impossible to make these radical distinctions 
too clear and specific. 

When this method of Natural Science is applied 
to the investigation of religions, tradition is sepa- 
rated from fact, dogma from demonstration, miracle 
from natural law, mythology and folklore are 
found to be the fabric woven by the imagination 
of mankind around the receding revelations, deifjang 
their authors, and mingling fact with fable, till the 
originals become unrecognizable. 

Romance and superstition become substitutes for 
simple Faith, moral law, and social Justice. 

To question or to repudiate the dogmas of 
superstition becomes a " mortal sin," even when 



HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE 145 

the most plain and specific moral or ethical obliga- 
tions are entirely subverted or reversed by dogmatic 
authority. 

It is thus that the original revelation is subverted 
and at last overthrown. 

From first to last, the whole fabric is claimed 
to be " sacred and divine," and to question it, 
" sacrilege " and " profanation of holy things." 
Thus, that which seemed originally as wings to the 
toiling, sorrowing children of men, becomes at last 
a " millstone about the neck," a " burden grievous 
to be borne." 

Then comes protest, repudiation, reform, and 
usually a new revelation, embodying the primitive 
faith, and adapting it to modern times and condi- 
tions. 

This is, in brief, the history of the Avatars of 
Ancient India, the Buddhas and the Zoroasters of 
later centuries ; of the Greek Orpheus ; of the legends 
and folklore clustering around many of the sages 
of Israel, and though in a less miraculous fashion, 
of Confucius and Laotse. But most patent of all 
does this principle apply to the founder of the 
Christian religion, because less ancient and more 
readily verifiable. 

Though no new Avatar is yet recognized, the 
spirit of modern science does not hesitate to repu- 
diate myth, miracle, and superstition, and to insist 
on fact and natural law. 



CHAPTER X 
CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE 

THE devout and conscientious believers in the 
Christian Religion of to-day often view with 
sorrow and alarm the encroachments of modern 
science. 

Unable to prevent these encroachments, they 
stubbornly resent them. Once admitted, it seems 
to them that nothing sacred or worthy the name of 
Religion would remain. To shift to other and more 
ancient faiths can never be considered at all, for 
the " higher criticism " and " pragmatism " have left 
them all in even a worse plight. 

It seems to these devout souls like the death of 
religion itself, and its elimination from the life of 
man. 

The intuitive basis and the intrinsic necessity of 
religion in some form have already been considered. 

This point is often overlooked or ignored by the 
Iconoclasts. 

Their position would seem to be, " Unravel the 
superstition, disprove the possibility of miracle, and 
let the deluge come if it must." 

Neither pragmatism nor higher criticism has been 
in any large sense constructive, but more largely 
destructive. The really spiritual element in all 

146 



CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE 147 

religions, already referred to, is generally lost 
sight of. 

Modern psychology is no nearer a science of the 
soul, than are folklore and superstition to true 
religion. It should be recognized and granted once 
for all that psychology, as a department of modern 
physical science, has no substitute whatever to offer 
in the place of Religion. 

It is gathering facts, classifying, and labeling 
psychic phenomena. 

Here and there an advanced scientist, like Sir 
Oliver Lodge, ignores tradition, repudiates ortho- 
dox scientific restraints, and steps over the border 
of actual or implied nihilism. 

This smug nihilism with its superior air of scien- 
tific wisdom, is often only the opposite pole of the 
dogmatic certitude of the churchman. Actual 
knowledge of the human soul is quite as far removed 
from the one as from the other. Credulity and In- 
credulity simply annul each other; often make faces 
at each other; while Progress stalks alone in the 
middle of the road, a " tramp " or a " vagabond," 
like Paracelsus, " reading the leaves of the book 
of Nature," laughing at poverty, fleeing from per- 
secution, yet knowing , and " becoming a light to 
man forever." 

The consensus of opinion among the presidents 
and professors in the leading colleges and uni- 
versities of this country, their unhesitating and un- 
qualified denial or repudiation of the claims set up 
by the church regarding revelation and the basic 



148 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

dogmas of the Christian Religion, and which his 
" Holiness " of the Vatican designates as " Mod- 
ernism," reveal, not only the " signs of the times," 
but show indisputably that modern education has 
shaken itself free from the superstitions of the 
past, and repudiated the old restraints to free 
thought and modern progress. 

Orthodoxy in religious matters has often nothing 
to do in determining college curriculums, in the 
selection of presidents, or in filling the chairs. 

Bright young men and women, the advanced 
students of the schools of to-day, who are to become 
the leaders of thought and the teachers of to-morrow, 
find little restraint and no formative element in 
the creeds and dogmas that in the past have been 
so much in evidence, and so constraining. Intensity 
of feeling has given place to breadth and inclusive- 
ness, and under the name of " Comparative Re- 
ligions," ancient faiths and modern, are classified, 
and studied like fossils in the different ages of the 
past. 

The " crusader impulse " has rather settled down 
in each individual breast, as the master passion, to 
do, to dare, and to become something more and 
better than the individual, or than the past has 
hitherto known. Such a general period of intel- 
lectual activity, with so few restraints, history no- 
where else records, and the world has never before 
known. 

Here lie the elements, the impulses, and the 
formative stage of the new Avatar. 



CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE 149 

At this stage of our discussion it is of exceeding 
interest and importance to bear in mind one great 
fact. The average intelligent student of to-day 
may take this fact tentatively, reserving final judg- 
ment till accumulative evidence becomes satisfactoiy 
and conclusive. 

No one who is dominated by shallow incredulity, 
and who attempts to close this door contemptuously, 
will ever arrive at the real truth. The judg- 
ment of such individuals is simply worthless, 
notwithstanding the smug conceit of their own 
opinions. 

The important fact referred to, is the demon- 
strated existence, all through the ages, of the so- 
called Mysteries. 

Their existence is beyond all question. What 
they concealed and taught is sometimes difficult to 
determine. 

There were also the genuine and the spurious 
Mysteries, and a fair appreciation of their origin, 
purpose, methods, and genius, as illustrated by 
Plato, Pythagoras, Zoroaster, and nearly every 
great sage of antiquity, leaves no possible doubt 
that in these " Secret Orders " were preserved the 
loftiest and the most profound mental and spiritual 
achievements of all previous human history. 

If there were no other evidence in existence at 
the present day except the traditions, landmarks, 
ritual, and Genius of Freemasonry, a careful and 
intelligent study of that Ancient Order would be 
sufficient. 



150 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

Whether one Mason in a thousand to-day appre- 
hends and realizes this fact, has nothing whatever to 
do with the real question. The evidence is there, and 
the indifference or superficial intelligence of numbers 
cannot alter it. 



CHAPTER XI 

CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR 

THE conflict between Science and Religion has 
been thoroughly thrashed out during the last 
half century, and the " reign of law," and orderly, 
and progressive evolution, have made for themselves 
a habitation and a name that nothing is likely to 
overthrow. 

It is recognized that every effect has a sufficient 
and a commensurate cause, not en bloc, but in 
matter, energy, mind, and spirit. Action and re- 
action are definite mathematical processes. The 
parallelogram of force tends everywhere to equilib- 
rium and secures further action and new processes 
under universal law. 

The " special creation " theory— everything made 
out of nothing by a personal God — is no longer 
regarded as tenable by intelligent individuals, 
though miracle and special providence are often 
included in accounting for the vicissitudes of life, 
just as the so-called scientist superficially and flip- 
pantly uses the word " coincidence," as though it 
really explained anything. 

" The rational order that pervades the universe," 
as Prof. Huxley defined the concept and aim of 
scientific discovery, has steadily gained ascendency, 

151 



152 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

until it dominates and measures individual intelli- 
gence. 

The criticism is still occasionally made that this 
means Pantheism, overlooking the fact that in all 
mythologies and cosmologies, an ideal and pure 
theism was recognized as lying back of and beyond 
the pantheons of the gods and the deification of the 
powers of Nature. 

This was true in the Greek, Persian, Egyptian, 
and Hindoo mythologies. Back of the many, and 
beyond the transient and contending divinities, 
was the One,, postulated, but unknown and change- 
less. 

Every religion known to man, with the advancing 
civilization of a people, copied, modified, adopted, 
and adapted the mythology and folklore of 
some pre-existing religion and people. This is 
readily demonstrable with the Hebrew, Greek, 
and later Christian dispensations, notwithstand- 
ing the most strenuous and persistent determina- 
tion to deny, disprove, and destroy the ancient 
records. 

It is embodied in the etymology of the very names 
of heroes, gods, and demigods. A new language 
arising with any people de novo can nowhere be 
found. 

Phonetics and picturegraphs, the various alpha- 
bets and glyphs, are mixed and modified, but never 
invented nor altogether changed. 

Complicated as they may be, it is thus that 
philology, ethnology, theology, and anthropology 



CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR 153 

constitute a consistent whole, the mythology and 
folklore of mankind. This reveals the practical 
unity and solidarity of the human race. 

The tradition and prophecy among the ancient 
Hebrews of the coming of the Messiah, the portents 
that heralded, and the signs and wonders that pre- 
ceded or accompanied his appearance, are merely 
translations or adaptations from previous eras, 
Buddhas, or Avatars. 

Whether Christian or non-Christian, the object 
of the advent is always identical. 

The light of the spirit having become enfeebled 
or obscured, the people are left in darkness and 
given over to sin and wickedness. Moral ruin 
seems inevitable unless there is a divine influx, a 
new Avatar, or Buddha, or Advent of the God- 
man. 

God incarnates himself as the son of Mary, and 
Jesus says, " I am come a light into the world that 
whosoever believeth in me should not abide in 
darkness." 

Christna says, " Though I am unborn, and my 
nature is eternal, and I am the Lord also of all 
creatures, yet taking control of my nature-form, I 
am bom by my illusive power. For whenever piety 
decays, O son of Bharata, and impiety is in the 
ascendant, then I produce myself. For the pro- 
tection of good men, for the destruction of evil- 
doers, for the re-establishment of piety, I am born 
from age to age." (Bhagavadgita.) 

The historical Buddha taught that he was only 



154 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

one of a long series of Buddhas, who appear at 
intervals in the world, and who all teach the same 
system. After the death of each Buddha his religion 
flourishes for a time and then decays, till at last 
it is completely forgotten and wickedness and vio- 
lence rule the earth. The names of twenty-four 
of these Buddhas who appeared previous to Gautama 
have been handed down to us, just as the " second 
coming of Christ " is believed in and referred to 
among the Christians. 

Even the Mohammedan Koran refers to this 
succession of prophets and messengers of Allah. 
The same is true of the Parsis. 

" I have said that I first of all chose Abad, and 
after him I sent thirteen prophets in succession, all 
called Abad. By these fourteen prophets the world 
enjoyed prosperity." 

" Tradition informs us that when these auspicious 
prophets and their successors behold evil to prevail 
among mankind, they invariably withdraw from 
among them — as they could not endure to behold or 
hear wickedness." 

This is precisely what happened to Egypt after 
the ambitious priesthood had gained the ascendency. 
The Master Builders retired. 

Bonwick says (" Egyptian Belief and Modern 
Thought ") : " What is commonly called the Christ 
idea of humanity, thus appears to have been the 
hope and consolation of the ancient Egyptians so 
many thousand years ago." 

That which thus appears and disappears, dies 



CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR 155 

out and is born again, is the spiritual light in the 
soul of man. 

The diversity of man's intellectual activities exer- 
cise, elaborate, and deepen his mental perceptions, and 
these largely concern the tilings of sense and time, 
his appetites, passions, desires, and ambitions. 

Back of and beyond all these lie the things of the 
spirit. On the physical plane of life the former 
obscure and crowd out the latter, which are thus 
continually in need of renewal. 

In adapting the new revelation to the conditions 
of life on the physical plane, it is intellectualized 
and theologized. Pundits and theologians under- 
take to explain what it all means and how it hap- 
pened to be. Hence arise wrangles, disputes, and 
finally creeds, dogmas, and persecution. 

" Men fight like devils for the love of God." 
This is the ultimate history of every religion known 
to man. 

Meantime, the soul of man, a spiritual being 
dwelling in a material body on the physical plane, 
is seeking real knowledge of spiritual things. 

This real knowledge is an experience of the soul. 
It concerns, and is comprised in, the living of a life. 
It is more than mind or intellect. It is knowledge 
gained by experience. " This only I know, that 
whereas I was blind, now I see." 

" Whether in the body or out of the body, I know 
not, but I saw things impossible to utter." 

Gradually man's idea of God and his conception 
of Nature have changed and enlarged. 



156 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

Man, as a spiritual being, is part of a spiritual 
, universe. He has been able to harmonize his con- 
cept of God and Nature progressively as he has 
gained larger views and deeper insight of both. 
He is no longer a puppet of infinite caprice, nor 
a somewhat " improved animal." 

The idea of man as a " fallen god " with the 
capacity to regain his heavenly estate, is far nearer 
the truth. 

As man advances in knowledge through the com- 
bined experiences of his spiritual nature and his 
physical embodiment, his beliefs change, his horizon 
enlarges, and his concepts become elevated and 
purified. The past is apprehended and utilized and 
the future intelligently anticipated. He begins to 
understand. 

This means the recognition of law and order, 
permanency, Foundation, and stability. 

The birth stories, the portents, signs and wonders 
that announce, accompany, or follow the birth of a 
Messiah or Avatar, are almost identical. " A com- 
mon instinct seems to have led all scripture-com- 
pilers to infer a simultaneous stimulus of nature 
and man upon the appearance of what the Hindoo 
calls an Avatar. 

Men, too, seem prepared to expect such an advent 
as its necessary time approaches. It is an instinct 
which tells them that " the darkest hour precedes 
the dawn." 

In the Christian scriptures the premonitions and 
birth stories are found largely in the Apocryphal 



CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR 157 

books. Doubtless the copying and substitution 
from the lives of Christna and Buddha were too 
plain. 

At the death of Jesus the seismic, astral, and 
cosmic disturbances are graphically described, as 
befitting the death of a god. " The veil of the tem- 
ple was rent in twain," etc. 

The simple fact is that mankind feels instinctively 
in the soul the far-reaching influences at work. 
The spiritual nature is stirred to its depths, and 
when he tries to describe what he sees and feels, 
his emotions, fears, or aspirations being at white 
heat, his imagination draws from the folklore of 
other times, races, and religions, to express what 
he so powerfully, but vaguely senses. 

But beyond all this, the time of great religious 
revivals and social upheavals is likely to coincide 
with seismic disturbance, tidal waves and the like, 
owing to the conjunction of planets under the 
general law of cycles. Man is completely involved 
with and evolved from the bosom of Nature. His 
freedom is determined by knowledge and obedience 
to Law. 

From the mystic Hymns of Orpheus, with the 
legends of Gods, demigods, and heroes, and the 
personification of the varied powers of man and 
nature, arose the Greek Pantheon, which, in poetic 
concept, romantic and dramatic embodiment and 
expression, as a concise and complete whole, has 
probably never been equaled by man. 

True, every essential element, under a different 



158 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

name and detail, may be found elsewhere, but never 
equaled in concise and constructive folklore and 
mythology. 

But running underneath all this, like a vein of 
gold under the mountain, was the philosophy of 
Plato. Grasping the One from the many, Unity 
from the fantastic diversity, he came to the in- 
dividual experience of the human soul and its 
conscious mastership over the body and the things 
of sense and time. 

Civic pride, patriotism, and heroism, walked side 
by side with dialectics, and the pantheon of the 
gods and the achievements of warriors rivaled each 
other on the stage, as themes for the poetic phi- 
losopher and dramatist. 

Mythology and folklore here furnished a back- 
ground from which the philosophy of the mysteries 
and the real science of life gained a hearing. 

Plato and Pythagoras generalized, and with many 
reservations represented that which they had been 
taught in the mysteries of Egypt. 

Greece, with its triumphs in literature, in the 
drama and in art, and all its magnificent civilization, 
knew no Avatar. 

Jacolliot, in his " Bible in India," has shown 
conclusively that not only the whole Greek pantheon, 
its folklore and mythology, and even its civil code 
were adopted from the Laws of Manu and the far 
older Aryan civilization, including even the names 
of heroes. 

The fame of Greece rests upon its Genius for 



CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR 159 

Construction in Art and Architecture and the 
Drama, and upon the open door it gave to Phi- 
losophy. There was no dominant priesthood to 
close the door of progress. 

It utilized all the past and built and beautified 
the present. 

It bequeathed no creed nor dogma to the future, 
and yet its civilization was transcendent and is 
immortal. 

It had its canons of Art and of Architecture. 
These it demonstrated by constructive work. It 
illustrated, explained and exemplified, but it did 
not argue nor dogmatize. 

The world for two thousand years has been 
" going back to Greece " and trying to explain how 
it all happened, just as we have been trying to 
explain Goethe's " Faust." 

Genius is transcendent and immortal. 

With the decline of Greece there arose the Genius 
of the Tiber, Imperial Rome, and the Caesars. 

Rome created an Avatar out of the " Babe of 
Bethlehem." Having enthroned Jehovah, it pro- 
ceeded to deify Jesus, and then by substitution to 
take the place of both. 

Imperial Rome, the " Scarlet Mother of the 
Tiber," assumed the government and dictatorship 
of the world. Imperial, dogmatic, relentless, the 
arbiter of the fate of humanity on earth and beyond. 

Here was arbitrary, relentless power at any cost, 
to be maintained on any terms. " The end always 
justified the means." 



160 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

In the civilization of Greece, the Individual, the 
citizen was first, and association and co-operation 
built the State. 

With Rome the Individual is nothing but a pawn, 
an accessory to the Church. It was and is the 
Church first, last, and all the time. The Individual 
can claim no right nor prerogative except as a con- 
cession from the Church. 

The contrast is extreme and absolute between the 
Genius of Greece and that of Rome. 

As the Genius of Greece was adapted from the 
older Aryan, so also was that of Rome, from the 
Brahmans, through Egypt. 

Among the various Avatars of old India desig- 
nated as " Incarnations of Vishnu," Siva " the de- 
stroyer'' was often in evidence. 

Rome proceeded to adopt the Hindoo Trinity — 
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva — (the Creator, the Pre- 
server, and the Destroyer), and to so shape its 
creed and dogmas as to secure and maintain the 
power of Mother Church, simply with a change of 
names — " Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 

It has enslaved nations and slaughtered millions 
in order to maintain its power. For more than fif- 
teen hundred years it has maintained its relentless 
warfare against the inalienable rights of the Indi- 
vidual, and the inevitable progress of humanity. 

It has escaped the execration of the world only 
by its priestly trick of deifying Jesus and sophis- 
ticating every doctrine that he taught. Support- 
ing its pretensions by Mariolatry, the Auricular 



CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR 161 

Confession, and its army of spies and inquisitors, 
it has dominated mankind, impoverished whole 
nations, devastated provinces and murdered all who 
opposed its progress wherever and whenever it has 
gained civil power. 

Rome is to-day the literal and visible reincarna- 
tion of Siva, the Avatar of Destruction. She has 
originated nothing. Her mass and all her ritualistic 
mummeries are adopted from paganism at its worst 
stage and in its most degenerate form, and she 
awaits the fate that befell Egypt and all her 
predecessors, " Sodom, Gomorrah, and the cities of 
the plain." 

Protestantism has hitherto " protested " only in 
part. Refusing Mariolatry and auricular confes- 
sion, Protestantism, by accepting the miraculous 
conception, the deification of Jesus and the vicarious 
atonement, has kept Rome in countenance. 

When these are swept away, and their doom is 
already declared by the leaders of thought in nearly 
all our institutions of higher learning, the Roman 
Avatar will stand revealed in all its nakedness and 
villainy to the execration of mankind. It is this 
tc Modernism " that " His Holiness " so much fears 
and is trying to arrest. It is too late, unless 
civilization and the march of time move backward. 

The most amazing thing about it all is, how the 
world, with its present intelligence and culture, can 
be so indifferent to this most aggressive, cruel, and 
relentless Avatar of all the ages, instead of re- 
pelling it with contempt and execration. 



162 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

Thirty-seven Italian Cardinals, 1 proud and arro- 
gant, rule the Church, elect the Pope, and assume 
dictatorship of the earth, as also arbiters of human 
destiny, here and hereafter. America, the corn-bin 
of this modern Egypt, by courtesy has one cardinal, 
just to keep her in countenance. 

The effrontery is cyclopean, but our supineness 
and indifference are deplorable and inexcusable. 

Shipping her impoverished, degraded, criminal,, 
and priest-ridden hordes to America by the million 
every year, Rome is massing her army for the 
overthrow of our government and all our present 
civilization. With her dogma of obedience, her 
army now votes and will, by and by, fight under 
the dictatorship of the Cardinals at Rome. Already 
undermining our Public Free Schools, boycotting 
the public press, with their army of Jesuit spies 
and secret assassins of every liberty prized by man, 
the " merry war " goes on right under our eyes, and 
we sleep and dream and blindly assume that " there 
is no danger." 

Read the history of the Crusaders, of the Prot- 
estant Reformation and of the " Holy Inquisition," 
and if further enlightenment is needed, study the 
origin, history, and denouement of all the Avatars 
of the past, the fate of Egypt, the cities of the 
plain, where paganism and a degenerate priest- 
hood usurped the place of pure and undefiled 
religion, and literally wiped from the map of the 

1 At the death of Pope Leo there were 65 Cardinals, 39 of whom were 
Italians. 



CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR 163 

world the civilizations of the past. Nemesis is writ- 
ten in letters of flame across the starry heavens, as 
an atonement for the blood of nations and the 
degeneracy and diabolism of an ambitious, cruel, 
relentless, and unrestrained priesthood. And it is 
all being literally repeated to-day without the 
novelty of a new idea, or method, or device, or 
motive. It is The Reincarnation of the Avatar of 
Siva, the Destroyer. 



CHAPTER XII 
PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME 

THERE is no disguising nor denying the fact 
that during the past half century institutional 
religion in the West has steadily lost its hold upon 
the great mass of the people. Creeds and dogmas 
are denied and repudiated. 

The " higher criticism " represents the reluctant 
yielding of theologians to the existing conditions. 
In order to maintain any hold whatever upon the 
people and retain a semblance of the old faith, they 
have revised and modified beliefs and interpreta- 
tions, and relaxed completely the former demand 
for the confession of faith and acceptance of the 
old creeds. Mere general verbal assent admitting 
of many mental reservations is now often deemed 
sufficient. 

In the meantime, the living of the life and the 
doing of the work demanded by Jesus have come 
more and more into demand and general recogni- 
tion. 

The " Emmanuel Movement," now gaining such 
recognition and making such rapid progress, is 
sufficient evidence at this point. 

With the Church of Rome no such change is 
manifest. By keeping its people in ignorance, by 

164 



PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME 165 

condemning all change or any improvement under 
the name of " Modernism," and by insisting upon 
the dogma of infallibility and blind obedience, Rome 
thus far has resisted all change and refused all 
compromise. 

The change in Protestantism represents the 
growth of intelligence, the recognition of the rights 
of conscience, and individual and intellectual free- 
dom. 

The stability so apparent in Romanism relies 
solely on Ignorance, Superstition, and Fear, en- 
forced by the dogma of "Infallibility" and re- 
enforced by the power of " Excommunication " and 
the penalty of " Anathema." 

The unity and stability of the Roman Church, 
thus secured by force, will presently be found to be 
apparent only. It could only work and hold in 
the dark ages. Internal division and dissension, 
now known to exist, await only some fresh act of 
oppression, or some new abomination, or abuse of 
political power, to disrupt its solidarity. 

In the meantime physical science has steadily 
advanced, opening new avenues of wealth, industry, 
and opportunity, and so developing the resources 
of this Western world. 

But more important and far-reaching still have 
been the discoveries regarding the finer forces of 
nature. 

The wonderful development and application of 
discoveries in Electricity have not only opened a 
new world previously unknown and unsuspected, 



166 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

but have seemed to endow these subtle forces al- 
most with an intelligence of their own. Crass 
materialism is dead and space practically annihi- 
lated. 

If a single wire or a vibrating disc cannot 
originate intelligent speech, it can retain, repeat, 
and transmit the qualities, tones and inflections of 
the human voice in a way that seems miraculous and 
uncanny. It is thus that our concepts of nature 
have been enlarged, refined, and actually spiritu- 
alized. " Brutal " and " dead " matter are no 
longer in evidence nor even mentioned. 

With the advent of modern spiritualism came 
another group of phenomena. Making the largest 
allowance for fraud, self-deception, and all the 
vagaries of the imagination, no intelligent individ- 
ual, familiar with the phenomena, will attempt to 
deny the extension of man's psychic world of con- 
sciousness and the manifestation of intelligence in 
ways and under conditions previously unknown. 
The identification of these intelligences, always 
difficult, and generally problematical, need not here 
be discussed at all. The facts and the phenomena 
are all that we are here concerned with. 

The most important consideration regarding all 
these phenomena is that they do not develop, but on 
the contrary dominate the individual. They are, 
in fact, altogether subjective. The medium may 
put himself in the negative or passive condition to 
be controlled, but he cannot command nor control 
the influence nor the " entity " that influences him, 



PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME 167 

and eventually he loses the power to resist it, and 
likewise the power of self-control. 

Science demands facts,, and here are facts in 
abundance. These facts supplement the discoveries 
in electricity and nature's finer forces, and pass 
from physics to metaphysics, from physiology to 
psychology, and push back the veil of the unseen, 
and hitherto unknown, many degrees. 

The trend of all this progress, and of these dis- 
coveries, is exceedingly plain. 

Our concepts of Nature, of Life, and of Man 
have been almost immeasurably enlarged, refined, 
and elevated. 

Expectancy is in the air. " What next is going 
to happen? " is the question everywhere asked. The 
conditions and portents, in a general way, are those 
that herald a new Avatar ; an Avatar now, of science 
rather than of religion; of knowledge rather than of 
faith, and this knowledge is to be of spiritual things, 
the foundations of which are already in evidence. 

This science is not to be time-serving, but man- 
serving; not so much a renewal of faith as a revela- 
tion of knowledge; less anxious for the glory of 
God than for the elevation of man, which is the 
more direct and certain way of honoring Divinity. 

This does not mean the decay nor the repudiation 
of religion, but a realization of true religion, such 
as heretofore prophets have foretold, revelation has 
forecast, and toward which humanity has toiled 
and journeyed in sorrow and pain; the very reli- 
gion that Jesus lived and taught. " A clean life, 



168 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

an open mind, an unveiled spiritual perception, a 
brotherliness for all, and human life a journeying 
upward toward the realms of eternal day, " with no 
night there, and no sorrow." 

And why not? If man can conceive it, why may 
he not realize it? The " Old Adam " as an excuse 
is exploded. The " New Adam " is indeed " a 
quickening spirit." 

Nothing is plainer nor more demonstrable at the 
present day than the fact that mankind is slowly 
but surely shaking off the traditions and the super- 
stitions that have bound it in the past, rising above 
the myths and the folklore of every age and clime, 
and awaking as if from slumber, to behold a new 
day and a new world. 

This awakening is even more in evidence and 
remarkable in the case of woman than of man. 
Progress here during the last decade has been such 
as the world has never before seen on any such 
scale, and it means more to the elevation of human- 
ity than anyone has hitherto been able to forecast 
or to measure. 

In the meantime social and economic conditions 
with the great masses of the people are very far 
from what they should be. 

Unrest and confusion are strongly in evidence. 
On the whole, there is far less suffering and desti- 
tution than ever before. Oppression and abomina- 
tions meet with quick and powerful protest from all 
classes, when exposed, and at least temporary re- 
lief is quick to follow. 



PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME 169 

The blame is confined to no one class, rich or 
poor. The equitable distribution of wealth, re- 
sources, and opportunity that have developed be- 
yond all precedent during the last half century, 
requires time. Justice and equity are not dead, 
but everywhere in evidence, dominating mankind 
at large. Public sentiment was never more keen 
and never nearer right than to-day. There is 
general confusion, however, as to methods and ways 
and means. The cunning shark and the selfish 
brute resort to concealment, cunning and subterfuge, 
to deceive the people and often succeed for a time, 
only to meet with condemnation and execration 
later. Injustice is often in evidence, but it is 
neither rampant nor dominant. It stands in fear 
of public sentiment. 

These, in brief and in outline, are the conditions, 
the portents, to-day, everywhere in evidence: 

1. The decay of creeds and dogmas. 

2. Great progress in Science, Art, and the Crafts. 

3. Immense discoveries regarding Nature's finer 
forces and the psychical powers latent in man. 

. 4. Great expectancy as to new revelations. 

5. Unprecedented increase in wealth and the de- 
velopment of natural resources. 

6. Enfranchisement of woman, and immense 
progress as to her rights and opportunities. 

7. Economic Justice recognized and aimed at, 
and fortified by public sentiment, with strong efforts 
to secure and maintain it. 

The present age or epoch is not one of darkness, 



170 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

but of light; not of discouragement, but of hope. 
It is neither retrograde nor stagnant, but progress- 
ive to a degree never before witnessed in the his- 
tory of man on so large a scale and involving all 
classes and so many people at one time. 

Organized or institutional religion alone is on 
the wane. Evidence and utility are everywhere 
demanded. Nothing is sacred simply because it is 
old; nor true merely because it is dogmatically 
asserted so to be. 

Holy books, holy men, and holy days are matters 
of evidence, and not of blind credence. 

What will the new religion — the new revelation 
— be? and whence will it come? 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 

BELIEF in a separable soul in man is virtually 
universal. Such belief is found amongst the 
lowest races, and in the few instances where it has 
not been clearly discovered it is admitted that it may 
still exist and be disguised by the native meaning 
of words or signs that escape the explorer. 

The universality of this belief has often been 
urged as an evidence of its validity and proof of the 
soul's existence. 

Modern physical science deduces this belief from 
the phenomena of daily life and the analogies of 
individual experience, thus giving precedence to 
material causes for mental concepts, or universal 
ideas. This view is, I think, entitled to the most 
careful consideration, but it cannot once for all 
be admitted, nor is it consistent with the general 
theory and progress of evolution that the phenom- 
enal stands to the noumenal, the actual to the 
ideal, as cause to effect. These two groups of ex- 
periences are alternate and coincident; and, as to 
priority, it is only the old question in a new form, 
as to which was first, the bird that laid the egg, or 
the egg that hatched the bird. 

This distinction is particularly pertinent to the 

171 



172 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

present subject, for the reason that by the method 
of modern physical science, in dealing with the 
belief in the existence of the soul, the whole of 
this universal belief is swept away. Its origin is 
found in the ignorance, superstition, and false 
analogies of barbarous races, and the inference is 
that the belief can only linger as a remnant of 
superstition among civilized men. This method pre- 
judges the whole question, and (while it must 
readily be admitted that the opposite method equally 
prejudges it), my contention is for neither the one 
nor the other, but for the careful consideration and 
final blending of both. If at first sight these two 
theories, which form the basis of the working 
hypothesis of the materialist and the spiritist, seem 
paradoxical and wholly irreconcilable, with careful 
consideration and unbiased investigation of both 
sides of the problem the paradox will disappear. 

With both the lowest and the highest races not 
only do we find the existence of belief in the exist- 
ence of a separable soul in man, but of ghosts, 
gods, genii, a spirit of the air, and hierarchies of 
celestial and infernal beings. 

In this regard, philosophers like Plato and Pythag- 
oras, the intellectual giants of the human race, 
may be said to have elaborated and specialized the 
rude conceptions of the Fiji Islander, and to vie 
with him in peopling space with invisible entities 
and potencies. In spite of the dictum of science, 
the world, intelligent and ignorant alike, believes, 
and will continue to believe, in the reality of the 



THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 173 

unseen universe, and the Platonic doctrine of 
" emanation " and the " world of divine ideas " not 
only begin where modern physical science leaves off, 
but at this very point science either begs the ques- 
tion, or ignores it entirely. 

How things come to be what they are, and to 
evolve as they do, science nowhere declares. It 
simply takes things as it finds them, and dubs the 
ultimate and antecedent causation the Unknowable. 
The philosophy of Plato, it is true, reaches at last 
the unknowable and the incomprehensible, but only 
after revealing another universe, the metaphysical 
and spiritual, entirely unknown to, or ignored or 
derided by the materialist. 

It is, however, from this invisible realm that all 
visible things have come forth, the two being not 
only under absolute and universal law, but bearing 
everywhere definite analogies to each other. Hence 
Plato says, " God geometrizes." Absolute mathe- 
matics determines the relations of atoms to suns, 
and the circulation of the blood in man to the 
revolutions of suns and solar systems. 
. A further general consideration remains to be 
noted before taking up the evidence of belief in 
the separable soul, and that is, the evolutionary life- 
wave of humanity on our earth. 

The progress of man for some millions of years 
past has by no means been a straightforward climb- 
ing from barbarism to civilization. The wave of 
evolution has ebbed and flowed. While at one 
place man has slowly emerged from savagery, at 



174 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

another he has as surely sunk to it. Continents 
and islands have risen from and again sunk to 
the bottom of the sea, bearing the races of men in 
their upheavals or descent, and cataclysmic and 
seismic or volcanic upheavals have blotted out in a 
day the accumulated progress of centuries. The 
poles of the earth have shifted with results to the 
life of the globe more awful than the imagination 
can portray. Bodies of people like our North 
American Indians represent the remains of many 
peoples, as in Russia or India to-day, fragments 
of many nationalities are being absorbed in 
one. 

Bearing in mind, therefore, that owing to many 
causes a nation may descend to barbarism or dis- 
appear entirely, we shall find everywhere the frag- 
ments and decay of the old belief no less than the 
dawn of the new. A noble creed, or a philosophical 
concept of a highly advanced race, may exist as a 
transformed and degrading superstition with a 
race, or a fragment of a people, undergoing de- 
generacy. 

Every religion known to man has gone through 
just this transformation. The tendency is innate 
and inevitable and no civilization or religion has 
ever yet been able long to resist it. If we bear 
this in mind we shall be less surprised at anthropo- 
geneses, cosmogeneses or psychologies found some- 
times among otherwise rude or savage peoples, and 
be better able to understand the incongruities and 
lack of symmetry in their evolution. It would be 



THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 175 

easy to cite instances and draw comparisons at 
this point. 

Bearing in mind, then, these general considera- 
tions underlying all interpretation, and nowhere 
more applicable than to our present subject, the 
following illustrations of belief in the separable 
soul, gleaned largely from Spencer's " Descriptive 
Sociology," may be of interest. It is drawn largely 
from the lower civilizations, as all are more or less 
familiar with the mythologies of the Greeks, 
Babylonians, Phoenicians, etc., all of which are 
accessible. The material available is embarrassing 
on account of its magnitude alone. 

Oscar Peschel, in his " Races of Man," says that 
" perhaps the Brazilian Botocudos, of all the in- 
habitants of the world, are most nearly in the 
primitive state, and yet," he adds, " possibly we may 
be altogether mistaken in this regard, as their 
languages are very imperfectly known." 

Humboldt rescued the Caribs from such an im- 
peachment and declares that their language " com- 
bines wealth, grace, strength, and gentleness. It 
has expressions for abstract ideas, for Futurity, 
Eternity, and Existence, and enough numerical 
terms to express all possible combinations of our 
numerals." It might be noted in passing that it 
was these same Brazilian natives that the Portu- 
guese settlers sought to decimate by spreading 
smallpox and scarlet fever amongst them, as the 
English colonists in Tasmania shot the natives 
when they had no better food for their dogs. 



176 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

Hariot says that " many of the Indian natives 
of North and South America believe that the soul, 
after its separation from the body, enters into a 
wide path crowded with spirits which are journey- 
ing toward a region of eternal repose. They have 
to cross an impetuous river ^ on a trembling wicker 
bridge which is very dangerous." 

Some Greenlanders believe that the soul can go 
astray out of the body for a considerable time. 
Some believe that they can leave their souls at home 
when going on a journey, and others believe in the 
migration of souls. 

Belief in the soul and a future state is universal 
among the Indians of North America. All are 
familiar with the tradition of the " Happy Hunting 
Ground." With them the future life is patterned 
after the present. 

Schoolcraft says that the Chippewas believe that 
there are duplicate souls, one of which remains with 
the body, while the other is free to depart on excur- 
sions during sleep. After death the soul departs 
to the Indian Elysium and a fire is kept burning 
on the newly-made grave for four days, the time 
required for the soul to reach its destination. 

The Dakotas stand in great fear of the spirits 
of the dead, who they think have power to injure 
them, and they recite prayers and give offerings to 
appease them. 

The Mandans, according to Schoolcraft, have 
anticipated Prof. Lloyd's Etidorhpa, even to the 
beautiful maiden. They believe that they were the 



THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 177 

first people created on the earth, and that they 
first lived inside the globe. They raised many vines, 
one of which having grown up through a hole in the 
earth, one of the young men climbed up until he 
crawled out on the bank of the river where the 
Mandan village stands. (Jack and the bean stalk.) 
The young man returned to the nether world and 
piloted several of his companions to the outer 
world, and among them two very beautiful virgins. 
Among those who tried to get up was a very 
large and fat woman, who was ordered by the 
chiefs to remain behind. Her curiosity prompted 
her secretly to make the trial. The vine broke 
under her weight and she was badly hurt by the 
fall, but did not die, and was ever after in dis- 
grace for having cut off all communication with the 
upper world. Those who had already ascended built 
the Mandan village, and when these die they expect 
to return to the nether world from which they came. 
They also believe the earth a great tortoise, and 
have a tradition of a universal deluge. 

The Indians of Guiana believe in the immor- 
tality of the soul, as do also the Arawaks. The 
Brazilians are said by Spix and Martins to have 
had no religious belief whatever before mingling with 
the civilized races. The Guaranis believed in a soul 
which remained in the grave with the body. 

The Patagonians believe in a country of the 
dead which they call Alhue Mapu and they kill the 
horses of the deceased in order that their owner may 
ride in Alhue Mapu. 



178 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

From the beliefs of the Negritto and Malayo- 
Polynesian races, I glean the following: The Fue- 
gians believe in a superior being, and in good and 
evil spirits, in dreams, omens, signs, etc. Fitzroy 
says he could not satisfy himself that they had any 
idea of the immortality of the soul. 

The Veddahs believe in the guardianship of the 
spirits of the dead, who visit them in dreams and 
minister to them in sickness, and they have cere- 
monies of invocation. 

Eyra says some at least of the Australians be- 
lieve in the existence and separability of the soul. 

The Tasmanians believed in a future life as a 
tradition of a primitive religion, and Bonwick says 
they conversed with the spirits of the dead. 

The New Caledonians believe that white men 
are the spirits of the dead, and that they bring 
sickness. They believe that the soul on leaving 
the body goes to the Bush, and every fifth month 
they have a " spirit night " or " grand concert of 
spirits." The gods of the New Caledonians are 
their ancestors, whose relics they keep and idolize. 

The Fijians believe in a separable soul, and dying 
is by them described by the same terms as sunset. 

Belief in a future state among them is said by 
Siemann to be universal. In Fiji heaven the in- 
habitants plant, live in families, fight, and so re- 
peat the incidents of life on earth. They believe 
that the spirit of men, while still alive, may leave 
the body and trouble other people when asleep. 

The Sandwich Islanders believe that the spirit 



THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 179 

of the departed hovers about his former home, 
appears to his relatives in dreams, and they wor- 
ship an image which they believe to be in some 
way connected with the departed. They regard 
the spirit of one of their ancient kings as a tutelar 
deity, and the king and the priest were believed 
to be descended from the gods. 

The Tahitians believe in a separable soul which, 
on leaving the body, is seized by other spirits and 
conducted to the state of night, where it is by 
degrees eaten by the gods. A few escape this fate, 
while others, after being three times eaten, be- 
come immortal. 

The Tongons believe that the human soul is the 
more ethereal part of the body and that it exists 
in Bolotoo in the form and likeness of the body 
the moment after death. 

The Samoans believe that the spirits of the dead 
have power to return and to cause disease and 
death in other members of the family, hence all 
are anxious to part with the dying on good terms. 

The New Zealanders believe that during sleep 
the mind leaves the body, and that dreams are the 
objects seen during its wanderings. They believe 
in two separate abodes for departed spirits, the sky, 
and the sea, and that the abodes of souls are to be 
approached only down the face of a steep precipice 
— Cape Maria Van Dieman. 

The Dyaks have great difficulty in distinguishing 
sleep from death. They believe that the soul dur- 
ing sleep goes on an expedition of its own, and 



180 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

sees, hears, and talks. They believe in spirits, 
omens, and in all that occurs in dreams as real and 
literally true. 

The Sumatrans believe in spirits and superior 
beings, and are said to have a vague idea of the 
immortality of the soul, and the Malays believe in 
spirits, good and bad, and seem to have a vague 
idea of a separable soul. 

The Mexicans believed in a separable soul, and 
distinguished three different abodes for it after 
death. 

Landa says the people of Yucatan have always 
believed more firmly in the immortality of the soul 
than other people, though they were less advanced 
in civilization. They believed that after death there 
would be a better life, which the soul would enjoy 
after its separation from the body. They wor- 
shiped their dead kings as gods. The mythology 
of the people of Guatemala, Honduras, and 
Nicaragua is extensive and complicated and their 
National Book, the Popol Vuh, possesses intense 
interest for the student. There can be no doubt 
that these people believed in a separable soul, as 
did also the Chibchas. 

It was the belief of the ancient Peruvians that 
the soul leaves the body during sleep, and that the 
soul itself cannot sleep, but that dreams are what 
the soul sees in the world while the body sleeps. 
Waitz says they believed in the transmigration of 
human souls into the bodies of animals. 

In the case of the Arabians the primitive belief, 



THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 181 

which was Sabianism, has been altered far less 
by Mohammedan invasion than most persons sup- 
pose. Burton says Mohammed and his followers 
conquered only the more civilized Bedouins, and 
Baker says that the Arabs are unchanged, and that 
the theological opinions which they now hold are 
the same as those which prevailed in remote ages, 
and of this belief the soul and its immortality 
formed a part. 

In general the Hill Tribes of India share in the 
universal belief in the soul, in spirits, gods, and 
devils, though of many of these tribes little is 
really known in modern times. 

Nearly all our North American Indians (I can 
find no exceptions) bury objects with their dead, 
such as food implements, jewelry, etc., and kill 
the horses of the deceased that he may ride in the 
Happy Hunting Ground. 

With the Carib's death his wife and captives were 
killed, and food utensils, etc., were buried with 
him. 

A curious custom prevailed with some Brazilian 
tribes. After burying food, utensils, arms, etc., 
with the body, a month after death the body was 
disinterred, put in a pan over a fire, the volatile 
substances driven off, the black residue reduced to 
powder and mixed with water and drunk by the 
compan}^. 

The Patagonians bury all the possessions of the 
deceased with the body. 

With the Hottentots, widows lose one joint of 



182 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

a finger as an offering to the deceased husband 
every time they re-marry. 

With the Kaffirs, the hut and utensils of the 
deceased are burnt. The East Africans offer 
prayer to the dead. 

The Congo people bury ornaments, utensils, arms, 
etc., and embalm the body after one or two years. 
The body of the chief must be carried in a straight 
line from the hut to place of burial, and if trees 
or huts impede the passage, they are cut down. 

The Coast Negroes bury property with the body 
and have a ceremony like an Irish wake, as do also 
the Abyssinians. 

With the Ashantis, gold dust and utensils are 
buried and human sacrifices occur. 

The wives of the Fijians are strangled that they 
may attend their lords in the new country. 

The people of Malagasy bury in vaults 10x12, 
and 7 feet high, and put in a large quantity of 
property. 

With the ancient Mexicans, wives, slaves, concu- 
bines, and chaplains were slaughtered to attend the 
deceased. 

The Arabs fasten the camels to the grave of 
their master. 

The Todas cremate the dead and slaughter the 
whole herd of buffalo belonging to him, in order 
to secure them to him in the after life. 

I have by no means given a complete category 
of the primitive and barbarous peoples who believe 
in a separate soul, and who believe in a future 



THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 183 

state much like the present and in conformity with 
that belief bury arms, ornaments, and utensils with 
the dead or place them on the grave, and who 
slaughter horses, camels, wives, slaves, etc., in order 
that the deceased may retain his possessions. How 
far these customs extend in case of the death of 
woman I do not know, but as with most of these 
people the women are regarded as chattels of the 
males, the case is doubtless very different. 

Now as to the origin of these beliefs and cus- 
toms, their causes naturally fall into two categories, 
the physical and the metaphysical. Modern bio- 
logical science regards the whole question from 
the physical side almost exclusively, and facts and 
experiences that belong largely or exclusively to 
the metaphysical realm are warped out of their 
natural order to fit the theory of interpretation. 

Every savage observes not only that he casts 
a shadow, but that shadows attend all inanimate 
objects that stand so as to intercept the light, and 
as shadows move as do objects that gives rise to the 
idea of animation. Hence we have genii, dryads, 
naiads, ghosts, angels, demons, etc. To fortify this 
belief we have echoes, which give voice to animate 
and inanimate objects. Movement and voice are 
the universal accompaniment of animation. 

The part played by the breath, and its sudden 
cessation at death, are believed to contribute to the 
belief in invisible existences. 

The beating of the heart, and its cessation at 
death, adds another link to the chain of phenomena, 



184 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

going to show that something leaves the body at 
death. This may be the origin of the sac- 
rifice of the hearts of captives to the gods, 
or to a deceased warrior or chief as with the ancient 
Mexicans, with the belief that the heart is the 
seat of the soul, and the , soul of the captive or 
victim shall attend the departed chief in the other 
world. 

But the most important place should doubtless 
be assigned to dreams as giving rise to belief in 
the world of spirits. Dreams are universal amongst 
men, and animals like the dog also dream. 

Most if not all primitive people are also aware 
that fasting promotes dreaming, and while many of 
them practice long fasting, partly, no doubt, to 
increase fortitude and bodily endurance, in very 
many cases it is known to be practiced for the pur- 
pose of promoting dreams. Beyond this voluntary 
fasting there is the enforced fast due to famine or 
the scarcity of food. 

It will be noticed in many of the cases cited 
how much stress is laid on the phenomena of dreams 
and how literally they are interpreted. 

Among civilized races and those wise in philos- 
ophy dreams play a very important part, and are 
classified as monitorial, prophetic, etc., etc. The 
habit in modern times of regarding dreams as alto- 
gether fantastic and unreal, is unscientific. In the 
mingling of the real and the apparently unreal, 
in the dream state, while the experience itself is 
always real to the dreamer, lies undoubtedly the 



THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 185 

source of many beliefs that influence the lives of 
men. 

Dreaming must be regarded as one of the states 
of consciousness, and hence, of whatsoever stuff 
dreams are made, they represent an actual ex- 
perience of the individual. No greater mistake 
can be made than the belief that no experience is 
real save that which brings us in contact with gross 
matter through the agency of the five senses. The 
world of ideas and the creations of the imagination 
are in fact no more evanescent than matter itself. 
Here impermanency differs only in time. All in 
time pass away. 

I hold that dreams, in general, show more 
clearly the nature of the soul, and the experiences 
of the waking state show the office of the bodily 
organism, and that each on its own plane is as valid 
as the other. 

In other words, " the soul is such stuff as dreams 
are made of." It does not hold true, nor need it, 
that the experiences in dreams shall be true and 
valid on the physical plane, though this is often the 
Case, or that the experiences of the physical plane 
shall be literally repeated in dreams, which, never- 
theless, frequently happens. 

It is an undeniable fact that the experiences 
of the conscious ego in man compass the sub- 
jective no less than the objective planes of being. 
That the subjective avenues should be closed 
when the ego is functioning on the physical 
plane through the bodily organs by aid of 



186 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

the senses, is quite as remarkable as that the 
physical avenues should be closed when in dreams, 
or trance, or syncope, or under anaesthetics, the ego 
functions on the subjective planes. 

I hold, therefore, that here, more than anywhere 
else, is the source of not only belief in the existence 
of the soul, but of the relatively uniform conceptions 
everywhere attained. The common experience of 
man on the one plane is as easily accounted for as 
on the other, and individual experience differs no 
more widely in the one case than in the other. 
So also is the persistence of the human type, or the 
genus, involved in the one case no less than in the 
other. 

All the agencies recognized in modern evolution 
tend to elevation only through differentiation, and 
even the " eternal cell " of Weismann fails in ex- 
plaining permanency of form through any physical 
transmission. When atavism and degeneracy are 
admitted as factors, as they certainly must be, the 
perpetuity of the human species fails from physical 
causes alone. 

I hold the idea of a separable soul to be innate 
in the human consciousness, as a necessary deduc- 
tion from the experience of the continuity of self- 
consciousness which compasses both the objective 
and subjective states. This deduction from ex- 
perience occurs whenever the evolving ego has 
advanced sufficiently above the animal plane to rea- 
son on its own experience, and for this reason the 
belief in the separable soul is universal. 



THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 187 

It is no more strange that the experience of the 
individual should be modified by traditions and the 
beliefs of others regarding, for example, the dream 
state, than that the experience of the individual 
should in like manner be modified or shaped by 
traditions and the ceremonies and usages of others 
on the physical plane. The bond of unity and that 
of diversity have one common root in humanity. 
What we need for larger knowledge is, I think, 
a recognition of the breadth and sweep of human 
experience. To stop either ignoring or quibbling 
over one-half of all our actual experience. 

The inner world of thought and being is really 
the habitat of the soul, while the physical body, 
like the diving-bell, enables us to explore and gain 
experience on another plane which otherwise must 
remain to us forever unknown. 

The limitations of space and time are unknown 
to us in dreams. These are the limitations of the 
fleshly casket. The consciousness of freedom, the 
absence of pain and sorrow even under great trial, 
are often experienced in the dream state. The 
range and character of experience in the subjective 
state is modified, and held in check by that of the 
physical plane, and the correspondence of an emo- 
tion to an idea, or of an act to a thought, ought to 
give us the key to the two sets of experiences and 
reveal the underlying basis of equilibrium. 

A universal fact and a common experience 
argue a universal nature. Like conditions every- 
where come from like causes. These are neither 



188 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

accidental nor incidental, nor are they left to the 
caprice of savages, nor to that of the more advanced 
civilizations. 

It is not at all strange that a common experience 
should result in a universal belief. The range of 
experience and varying vicissitudes of life on the 
outer physical plane differ as widely as do those 
of the dream plane, and the conscious identity 
of the individual is equally preserved on both 
planes. 

I hold that here lies the origin of belief in the 
existence of a soul in man, separable from the body, 
and the confines of matter, space, and time, in an 
actual experience of every individual. The beating 
of the heart, the phenomena of respiration, the 
cessation of these at death, and the shadows cast 
by man and inanimate bodies serve as connecting 
links between the experiences of the individual on 
the subjective and objective planes of being. 

The dream state and the experiences thence de- 
rived are subjects for psychological science to in- 
vestigate. The experiences allotted by du Maurier 
to " Peter Ibbetson " are not altogether fantastic 
and unwarranted, as the records of somnambulism 
and hypnotism abundantly prove. When we re- 
member that nothing deserving the name of Psy- 
chology or Psychic Science exists in the western 
world to-day, we need not wonder why men eminent 
for investigations in other departments prove them- 
selves novices and dogmatists here. 

The folklore, the traditions, and the mythology 



THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 189 

of dreams would form a very interesting subject for 
discussion. It is true that the literature of the 
subject is fantastic, mixed with fable and often 
altogether unreliable; but these difficulties offer no 
more formidable bar to scientific investigation than 
many another problem already classified and formu- 
lated for systematic study. 

I know a lady of very superior ability, the mother 
of a prominent jurist, who all her life has had 
distinct premonitions of many calamities and coming 
events, and there are those who dream true in every 
community. Fantasies, nightmare, dreams from 
indigestion and delirium, form a separate class 
where the dreamer is entangled in the meshes of the 
bodily functions. 

Here fasting, either voluntary or enforced, comes 
in, and drugs known to the remotest times are found 
to promote and to determine the character of dreams. 
There are furthermore processes of mental gym- 
nastics whereby the thinker withdraws himself from 
the bodily avenues of sense and functions at will on 
the subjective plane of being. 

" When then," said Socrates, in the Phcedo, " does 
the soul light on the truth? for when it attempts to 
consider anything in conjunction with the body, 
it is plain that it is led astray by it." 

" And surely," he continues, " the soul reasons best 
when none of these things disturb it, neither hear- 
ing, nor sight, nor pain, nor pleasure of any kind, 
but it retires as much as possible within itself, 
taking leave of the body, and as far as it can, not 



190 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

communicating or being in contact with it, it aims 
at the discovery of that which is." 

I hold that the most valuable triumphs of 
science in the future lie in the realm of psychology, 
and that by no means the least important contri- 
bution in this direction wilL come from the study 
of Folklore, of which belief in the separable soul, 
and the phenomena and universality of the dream 
state must form a very important part. 

One final consideration is suggested not without 
some degree of hesitation and diffidence. If there 
be a soul in man destined to continued existence, 
and if in any case perfection is the goal of evolu- 
tion as formulated by Herbert Spencer for a future 
residue of the human race, then this soul in its 
essential elements is without beginning in time. 

Pre-existence and evolution necessitate repeated 
re-embodiment on the physical plane, and the con- 
tinuity of self-consciousness in man I hold to be 
the proof of life without beginning or end. 

Viewed in this light, dreams and all subjective 
experiences in man must mingle reminiscences of 
the soul with the experiences of the present life, 
and the theory of innate ideas assumes a purely 
scientific form. We hence arrive at the intuition 
of the soul to account for universal belief. The 
experience of Socrates and the Fiji Islander agree 
as to the subjective plane as perfectly as in regard 
to the beating of the heart. They differ only in 
degree of evolution. 



CHAPTER XIV 
FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 

A CONCISE and detailed review of the past, 
in the long journey of man toward civiliza- 
tion and independent self-knowledge, has not been 
herein attempted. Only hints, here and there, and 
the barest outline have been undertaken. 

If, however, the intelligent student will follow 
these clews, he will find a mass of material and 
abundant evidence to corroborate the general thesis. 

Every great religion has had its Avatar, its Re- 
deemer, its Christos. 

Each of these religions has adapted from its 
predecessors and transformed the old, in whole or 
in part, to suit the conditions and apparent needs 
of the time. 

Each of these revivals of religion has been in- 
stituted on account of the abominations of a domi- 
nant priesthood and the poverty and degradation 
of the masses. What was at first claimed and 
instituted as a Divine Revelation for the elevation 
and happiness of the whole people, has openly and 
shamelessly degenerated into enslavement of the 
masses and the creation of a despotic and arrogant 
class who enslaved both body and soul in the name 
of Religion. 

191 



192 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

Priest, Prince, and Potentate generally, united 
to terrorize through force, and by superstition and 
fear, in order to retain their power. 

The reaction has invariably resulted from eco- 
nomic conditions, as in the case of the Protestant 
Reformation, when the gold, sent to Rome through 
the shameless sale of Indulgences, threatened to 
impoverish the whole of Northern Europe, and 
Princes broke allegiance to the Priesthood in des- 
perate self-protection. 

Then, and then only, came sufficient protest and 
Reformation. 

The religionist is apt to regard and designate 
Science as " profane," and Religion per se, as 
essentially " holy." 

Nothing can be really considered " holy " that 
does not elevate, encourage, and inspire the whole 
human race and promote the Brotherhood of Man. 
Whenever any religion fails to do this it becomes 
indeed a profanation of holy things. 

The only religion that ever became the inspira- 
tion of a whole people, so far as history records, was 
that of Christna, with the teeming millions of 
India. Buddhism was driven out of India by the 
powerful and unscrupulous Brahmans, and took 
refuge in Ceylon, Thibet, and adjacent provinces. 

The religion of Jesus met a similar fate from 
the Jews and the Roman governors, until Pagan 
Rome adapted and transformed it on the principle 
of dominance and exploitation inherent in the genius 
of the Latin Race. 



FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 193 

Since which time no one will pretend to claim 
that the Religion of Jesus has ever dominated the 
human race or any large part of it. 

Rome to-day no more represents the religion of 
Jesus than the Brahmans of to-day represent that 
of Christna, or Buddha, or the religion of the 
Vedas. 

Nothing is so amazing to-day as that the intelli- 
gence of the present age fails to recognize this 
fact. 

All of these religions of the past have adapted 
their teaching to the multitude through parable and 
allegory. Nothing in literature can be found more 
beautiful and inspiring, and at the same time com- 
prehensible to the commonest intelligence, than 
Christna's " Parable of the Fisherman." 

Christna and Buddha, like Jesus, taught to their 
disciples a " Secret Doctrine," apprehensible only 
to the few. " To you it is given to know the 
mysteries," but to others, who are without, it is not 
given. 

It can readily be proven from at least a half 
score of the early Church Fathers (see page 70 et 
seq. of the author's "Mystic Masonry"), that the 
early church practiced " Initiation," patterned after 
those of the Gnostics, Therapeutia and the Mysteries 
of Egypt, and divided their neophytes and postu- 
lants into three degrees, as in Blue Lodge Masonry 
to-day. 

While the great mass of mankind to-day are 
incapable of apprehending these genuine mysteries 



194 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

of life, and of the individual soul of man, it is 
doubtful if any civilization ever existed where so 
many were willing and capable of understanding 
them as are found here in America to-day. 

The reason for this and the growth of intelli- 
gence have already been outlined. 

A new race is slowly forming here, designated by 
the ancient Wisdom as the " Fifth Race," and 
called the Manasic, the growth of Intelligence, or 
" Mind." 

It is above all things important that with this 
development of Mind there should also develop that 
of Buddhij or Loving Kindness, the essential ele- 
ment in the Universal Brotherhood of Man; a 
thing largely overlooked in the modern theory of 
Evolution, and ignored, or set at naught by Roman- 
ism by its dogmas, anathemas, and persecutions. 
Instead of the brotherhood of man, she has exhibited 
the cruelty and rapacity of devils. (Establishment 
of Roman Catholic Caste.) 

This all-around development of the whole man, 
as essential to human evolution, is everywhere in- 
sisted upon by all the great Masters of antiquity, 
and is illustrated and exemplified in the genuine 
Greater Mysteries. 

Hence, the saying in Kabala, " The wicked 
obey the law through fear; the wise keep the law 
through knowledge." The Saviors all preached and 
practiced the " Good Law," and obedience to legal 
mandates. 

The explanation usually given of an Avatar by 



FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 195 

the ancient Masters, as " a descent, embodiment, or 
incarnation of Vishnu" who is not only the " Pre- 
server," but the " Rejuvenator " of mankind, is 
rather a blind,, and was an interpretation given to 
the common people, or the " profane." 

All things — even heaven and earth — pass away, 
and all things are renewed. 

This renewal, or regeneration, through the con- 
structive principle of evolution, is " designed " to 
be continually on higher and still higher planes. 

It is not the range of experience, nor the growth 
of intelligence alone, that elevates man, but the 
progressive and constructive growth of the soul, 
from the physical toward the spiritual plane of 
Being. 

This actual growth means Knowledge, Wisdom, 
Understanding, Knowledge of the Law, Obedience 
to its Commands, and Realization of its Rewards. 

This Constructive Psychology is the growth of 
the Soul. 

Man passes, therefore, from the age of Fable, 
Superstition, and Fear, to the age of Faith and 
Obedience, and finally to that of actual Knowl- 
edge. 

This age of Knowledge — not for all of mankind, 
but for a larger number who are worthy and well- 
qualified, duly and truly prepared than was ever 
known at one time before — has at last dawned. 

The question is continually asked, " Why do the 
Masters of Wisdom Conceal their Knowledge?" 

The only adequate answer is that so few are 



196 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

ready, willing, and able to receive it in the right 
way, and to use and not abuse it. 

Those who deny that any such knowledge has 
ever existed, or exists to-day, or can exist, had better 
waste no time over it. They cannot alter it, nor 
destroy it, as their predecessors have tried to do for 
ages, often murdering or crucifying all who were 
even suspected of possessing it. They might as 
well try to destroy the law of gravitation, or 
imagine that by murdering the foremost mathema- 
tician of the day that they had destroyed the 
science of mathematics. I am speaking of Knowl- 
edge of Spiritual things. 

A new Avatar, therefore, is not simply an in- 
dividual, though many individuals may understand 
and exemplify it — the Initiated, the Illuminati — 
and one man may lead in representing it. 

To call it " the descent and embodiment, or In- 
carnation of Vishnu," in a metaphysical sense, the 
Spirit (generically), that renews, rejuvenates, trans- 
forms, and regenerates, is by no means an empty 
metaphor. 

In the same sense we speak of the " Genius of 
Greece," or of Rome, or of Civilization. 

The idea is composite, and represents an under- 
lying and universal principle and potency. 

But after all metaphor and generalization, each 
Avataric movement centered around an individual 
Man, and this Man embodied the principle and 
undertook the special work of an evangel, or 
Christos, or "Avatar," amongst men. \ 



FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 197 

Not only have there been many Avatars, and 
many Buddhas, but when we realize the meaning 
of these terms and the mysteries they represent, 
we discover that while it may be the special mission 
of one, like Christna, or Buddha, or Jesus, to under- 
take the work of enlightening and redeeming any 
age; there are other Masters, or Illuminati, en- 
gaged in other work, on different planes, to pro- 
mote the same general results. 

The result with each of the great Saviors of man- 
kind has been, that the common people, or the 
priesthood, have eventually either crucified or deified 
them. 

In the case of Jesus they have done both. Eight 
separate and deliberate attempts have already been 
made to assassinate the present representative of the 
School of Natural Science, who was educated in the 
order of the Illuminati, and delegated by that 
Order to present these great truths to the world 
to-day. 

This individual is only in the broadest meta- 
physical sense (as already defined), an Avatar, 
which, as shown, is a composite idea, focused in and 
■represented by an individual man or teacher. 

The work of this Master is to instruct, to ex- 
emplify, and to demonstrate, the ancient Wisdom 
on Scientific lines, in keeping with the needs, the 
opportunities, and the scientific spirit of the present 
age. 

He does not preach to the multitude in parables. 
He undertakes to instruct the few who are ready 



198 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

and qualified to receive such instruction, and who will 
properly use and not abuse it, and he does this 
"without money and without price"; "without the 
hope of fee or reward." (Herein is the Avataric 
Spirit of Freemasonry.) 

What his reward will be with the rabble, or with 
the " money changers," he knows too well, but to 
such as he, fear is unknown. 

I am speaking not for him, but of him, after the 
blessed privilege of seven years of the most intimate 
association, and such co-operation as I have been 
capable of giving. 

His plan and motive seem to be to get as much 
as possible of this knowledge of the soul, and of 
spiritual things, to the attention of the " progressive 
intelligence of the present age," in order that it 
may become exemplified and diffused among all 
classes, and for the benefit of the whole human 
race. 

We have passed the age of fable, and of blind 
faith, and have come to the age of fact and law. 
Kali Yuga means the Iron Age. 

As two natures, the physical and spiritual, meet 
and mingle in the constitution of man, so do his 
faculties, capacities, and powers mingle and func- 
tion on the two planes, the physical and the spirit- 
ual, though very largely on the former, with the 
great majority in any age or time. 

There is implanted in the very foundation of 
man's being the idea or the consciousness of a 
separable soul. It would seem to be an intuition, 



FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 199 

for with nearly every people of which we have 
any knowledge, no matter how near the animal 
plane, the belief or the folklore of a separable soul 
exists, in many cases held to be separable during 
life, and in most cases believed to survive the death 
of the physical body. (See folio editions of Herbert 
Spencer's " Descriptive Sociology," and Chapter 
XIII, herein.) 

It has generally been held by scientists and com- 
mentators, that this intuition, or belief, results 
largely from dreams.. 

To say that dreams, in general, are mere fan- 
tasies, or the results of imagination, and have no 
real basis in consciousness, is folly; for dreams are 
of many kinds, and present great varieties. 

They are, moreover, both reminiscent and pro- 
phetic, sometimes moving like any other conscious 
experience, from fact to fruition, and in others, 
we are unable to relate them to any other con- 
scious experience. 1 

Hypnosis and Telepathy are related to the same 
states, so much so, that the modern scientist has 
been constrained to coin two new terms to avoid 
endless repetitions, viz.: "subliminal" and "supra- 
liminal " states of consciousness. 

Bearing in mind all these subjective states and 
experiences, including the whole range of so-called 
mediumship, the theorem of the Masters and adepts 
of all ages may be made exceeding plain. 

1 For a very valuable and suggestive treatise on " Sleep," see F. W. 
H. Myers " Human Personality," Chap. IV. 



200 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

It consists in the dominance of the Will over all 
conscious states. 

This is the Alpha and the Omega — the principle, 
the potency, and the act — of Mastership. 

The mind of the Master no longer drifts in a 
boundless sea of fantasy, but with rudder and 
compass, he guides his ship whithersoever he would 
go. 

This does not mean that there are not still de- 
grees and related states and conditions of con- 
sciousness in his experience. 

It does mean, however, that all these states and 
conditions, with all his faculties, capacities, and 
powers, are co-ordinated, not only in his awareness 
of them as a whole, but in the exercise of each and 
its relation to the others, dominated by his own 
Will. 

He has " Mastered " them, and can incite or 
repress them, while they can no longer dominate 
him. Can the reader imagine such a degree of 
Self-Control? 

This, however, is but the beginning, as the 
" Secret of Power," and by no means the end. 

Controlling the phases and forms of consciousness, 
there comes next the determination to extend their 
boundary and to refine and elevate the powers of 
the Soul. 

In the first case, that of co-ordination, the ancient 
Wisdom admonishes the student or chela to " make 
the mind one pointed, like a light burning in a 
quiet place. 3 * Light a candle and put it in a corner 



FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 201 

where no draught can reach it, and the flame will 
seem as though cut out of solid fire, and " one 
pointed." 

It is at the point of refining and elevating the 
individual consciousness that Ethics or Morals come 
in. It is just at this point also that the Path is 
determined. 

What our ancient Brothers called " the power of 
Will and Yoga " — self-control — may ignore Ethics. 
Here the paths separate, and are called " the Right- 
hand Path" and "the Left-hand Path," deter- 
mining the " White " and the " Black Magician," 
about whom so much is said in all ancient scriptures 
and traditions regarding " Sorcery " and " Black 
Magic," of which Egypt and Home and Modern 
Mediumship and Hypnotism, are illustrations. 

The supreme importance of this natural division 
or " parting of the way " reveals the real and final 
reason why the Masters of the " right-hand path " 
conceal their knowledge from the profane and re- 
veal it only after an ethical formulary has been 
learned and once for all ingrained. 

The " Thugs " of India are no more an idle 
dream nor a bugaboo to frighten children and old 
women than are the Mafia and the Roman Jesuit 
to-day. 

In Egypt the time came when these " Black 
Magicians " dominated the people and drove out 
those of the right-hand path who built the great 
pyramid and gave to Egypt the wisdom and glory 
of its prime. 



202 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

The consciousness and power of these evil/fnen, 
however, was limited to the lower planes. When- 
ever they wished to transcend these lower'" planes- • 
they were powerless. Hence arose the. Sifyyl; young : 
boys or virgins were hypnotized, and being., pure, - 
they could thus be inducted into a somewhat higher | 
plane. (See Mabel Collins' " Idyll of the White 
Lotus.") 

Margrave, in Bulwer's " Strange Story," is a 
fine picture of an " adept of the left-hand path." 
He would sacrifice the whole human race in order 
to gain his personal and selfish ends, just as would 
"Mother Church" to-day. 

The Master of the White Lodge would readily . 
lay down his life for the benefit of his fellowmen. 
Herein is the vital difference. : K 

Here lies the meaning and the complete an- 
tithesis represented by Christos and Satan. Both 
names are generic and Avataric, and yet, may be 
personified. 

This elevating and refining process to which I 
have referred is not a matter of sentiment or 
emotion, but a matter of fact, with a definite, 
scientific formula. 

In a previous chapter belief in the existence 
and separability of the human soul has been shown 
to be virtually universal, and in some cases, even 
with people of very low development, the belief is 
held that the soul may be separated from the body 
and reunited again during life. 

This is, however, a belief, and proves nothing as 



FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 203 

to fact, science, and law, beyond the existence of the 
belief, with all the appurtenances, concomitants, and 
subjective experiences of individuals thereunto be- 
longing. 

We thus arrive at the real theorem as a cold 
psychological problem. 

Can the existence and separability of the soul 
of man, during his physical embodiment on earth, 
and its survival of the death of the physical body, 
be scientifically demonstrated as a fact? 

If so, then the principles involved, the methods 
employed and the whole modus operandi must be 
capable of exact, scientific formulation, the same as 
any other theorem of science. 

Furthermore, granting that this is true, and that 
it can be done according to exact formulary, the 
value, the effect of such a demonstration upon the 
character and the normal faculties, capacities, and 
powers of the individual who undertakes and accom- 
plishes such a demonstration, must be revealed and 
taken fully into account. 

Does it elevate or degrade him? Is it in line 
with normal evolution, and therefore, potentially the 
birthright, and finally, through spiritual evolution, 
the higher destiny of all men? 

Nor is this all. The effect of the existence of 
such Knowledge and of its teaching, upon communi- 
ties, as a substitute for blind superstition, credulity, 
or belief, must also be taken into account. 

It may thus be seen how much even beyond the 
mere fact of demonstration, is included in this tran- 



204 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

scendent problem; this question of all ages, " If a 
man die, shall he live again? " or, " Does the real 
man ever die at all? " 

Now it is a demonstrated fact, proven in every 
case of a genuine Master, and held inviolable in the 
" Greater Mysteries " of every age and time, that 
the ethical question above raised, as to the effect 
upon individuals and society, comes first, and is 
made a test of the " first step " in the way of demon- 
stration. 

This is the meaning of the oft repeated quotation, 
the candidate for initiation must first be " worthy 
and well-qualified, duly and truly prepared." 

This comprises and constitutes the " Lesser Mys- 
teries," as in the School of Pythagoras, viz.: the 
instruction of the neophyte in ethics or morals. 

Nor is this instruction sufficient in any case. 
The candidate must himself demonstrate that he has 
absorbed, apprehended, and utilized such instruc- 
tion by "Living the Life/ 3 

In other words, it must have become so in- 
grained in his character as to govern absolutely 
all his acts and impulses to action, i.e., automatic, 
habitual, and natural. 

In the School of Natural Science this comprises 
and constitutes the " Ethical Section of the General 
Formulary." 

In the School of Pythagoras we are informed 
that students sometimes remained for years in the 
" outer court," and sometimes they failed entirely 
and hopelessly, and went back to the outer world. 



FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 205 

Whereupon a white stone was erected to their 
memory as though they were dead. They were 
indeed, for the time being, dead to the School. 

This fully answers the ethical question as to the 
effect of this real knowledge on the individual and 
on mankind. 

The real Master sees to it that all that precaution 
can provide, or human wisdom can suggest, is done 
to insure beneficent use of the knowledge gained. 

It is here that " degrees " in initiation become a 
necessity. Every step, or passage of the candidate 
from a lower to a higher degree, is marked and deter- 
mined finally and solely by his " proficiency in the 
preceding degree." 

The question of Morals, or the ethical effect, 
therefore, is pre-determined, and as far as possible, 
solved first. 

But even with all this wise precaution, the un- 
prepared and the unqualified have sometimes entered 
the outer courts; and when compelled at last to 
reveal their character, have turned to rend their 
teachers, and have done their utmost to destroy the 
School and demoralize mankind. 

If these moral renegades could only realize the 
meaning to themselves of thus entering the " Left- 
hand Path " of devolution and of starting volun- 
tarily " down the deep descent," as portrayed in 
Dante's " Inferno," or in Ahrinzeman, they would, 
indeed, hesitate long before " turning to the left," 
for inevitable destruction lies that way. 

Here lies the scientific explanation of the " Fall 



206 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

of Lucifer," portrayed in some form in the pantheons 
and mythologies of every philosophy and religion 
known to man. 

The ordinary " sinner " may yet possess an " aver- 
age " of all the virtues, and the ordinary " saint " 
an " average " of all the vices. Concerning these 
it was said, " I would have you either hot or cold, 
but because ye are neither hot nor cold, I have 
spewed you out of my mouth." No lukewarm soul 
ever entered the Kingdom of Heaven. 

But a time at last comes when the soul of man, 
enmeshed in the " lusts of the flesh and the deceit- 
fulness of riches," must make his choice. He realizes 
that he can no longer " serve two masters." He 
will make his choice knowingly, deliberately, and 
voluntarily. Happy and blessed will be he if with 
his whole soul, and with every impulse of his being, 
he declares, " I know not what others may do, 
but as for me and my house, we will serve the 
Lord." 

If there are real Masters (and there are), they 
have to work under both Natural and Divine Law, 
and in strict harmony with the higher evolution of 
the whole human race. 

It is only a low, feeble, and undeveloped intelli- 
gence that finds God and Nature at cross-purposes. 

He who has found " the place of peace," har- 
monized his own nature, purified his own life, and 
elevated all his desires and aspirations, has dis- 
cerned the " harmony of the morning stars," and 
caught the symphony of the heavenly hosts. In 



FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 207 

other words, he is already functioning on the 
Spiritual Plane. 

This would seem to make clear the ethical prob- 
lem raised, the stress placed upon it, and how it is 
met and answered by every genuine Initiate 
throughout the ages. 

It has to be solved first in each individual case. 
Only " he who lives the life shall know the doctrine," 
or advance to power. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A KNOWLEDGE 
OF THE HUMAN SOUL 

THE writer of the present treatise is quite well 
aware that the great majority of intelligent 
and educated people at the present day will deny 
that any real knowledge of the human soul as a 
spiritual entity, separable from the v physical body 
during life and demonstrably surviving its death, 
exists now, has heretofore existed, or, if possible 
for man, is likely to exist for some time to come. 
Some will unhesitatingly declare such a thing un- 
knowable for man. 

I hold the firm conviction that this knowledge 
has been for ages the possession of certain indi- 
viduals, few in number in any age or country, and 
that this knowledge has resulted through con- 
formity to certain definite and specific requirements, 
formulated under well-known laws of man's spirit- 
ual being, involving a definite individual experience 
and resulting in a scientific and exact demonstra- 
tion. 

I ask the reader to note two points in the fore- 
going statement: First, that for myself I use the 
word "conviction," and not "knowledge"; and, 
second, that the demonstration of real knowledge 

208 



THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY 209 

referred to, is made by, and confined to an indi- 
vidual, in each instance. 

With these individuals the knowledge is a scien- 
tific demonstration through personal experience. 
With me, the " firm conviction " is a matter of 
" circumstantial evidence," supported by analogy, 
and fortified by empirical testimony, such as ac- 
quaint the world with the facts and findings of 
science, and which I think admit of no other con- 
sistent and rational interpretation. 

In the foregoing pages I have endeavored to 
give outlines, analogies, and suggestions which 
seem to fortify the conviction referred to. 

While these are fragmentary and desultory, 
owing to the fact that the circumstances are so 
varied, the subject so vast, and the materials so 
abundant, yet, taken as a whole, they seem over- 
whelming, and, except to the careful, persistent, 
and intelligent student, confusing. 

It must be clearly apprehended that no one 
familiar with the subject can reasonably suppose, 
nor has it ever been claimed by a real Master of the 
" Art," that this knowledge ever has been, or can 
be, communicated to, or acquired by groups of 
individuals at any time, or under any circumstances. 

Through all the past, and at the present time, it 
is designated as an individual experience. 

True, the ethics, and the philosophy, and even 
the principles of exact psychic science that in the 
past constituted the " Lesser Mysteries," can be, 
and often have been, taught to groups, or classes. 



210 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

In the present " School of Natural Science," this 
preparatory training constitutes the " Ethical Sec- 
tion." 

But above and beyond all the foregoing general 
considerations the " empirical facts " and the " cir- 
cumstantial evidence," if we know personally one 
who claims to have had the specific instruction, the 
personal experience, and to have made the scientific 
demonstration referred to and outlined in the prob- 
lem, our opportunity for instruction, and for the 
application of tests for validity and reasonable- 
ness as to the whole problem, is exceedingly valu- 
able. 

This personal acquaintance may become the near- 
est possible criterion, short of our own personal 
experience, as to demonstration. 

In previous chapters this phase of the subject 
has, perhaps, been sufficiently dwelt upon. 

The Master may say, " I know; I have had the 
personal experience; I have demonstrated." 

The student may at last say, " I believe; I am 
convinced; I am satisfied." 

All through the foregoing pages the effort has 
continually been made to preserve clearly this dis- 
tinction. 

In tracing analogies through the history of the 
past, the conditions, premonitory, present, and sub- 
sequent to great world-movements have often been 
referred to. 

Nothing is more common or more patent than the 
oft-repeated saying, " This is the age of science." 



THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY 211 

Any great movement that undertakes at the present 
day to deal with the deeper problems of individual 
and social life, must fit in and conform to the 
" spirit of the present age." 

To that platform it must appeal; in that language 
it must be addressed, and by such judgment and 
criterion must it stand or fall. 

All these tests and criteria have been fully met 
by the School of Natural Science, and they are 
clearly outlined and set forth in the " Great Work," 
addressed to " the Progressive Intelligence of the 
Age." 

There need be no misconception or misinterpre- 
tation at this point. 

It is true that superficial thinkers and readers, 
enthusiasts and emotionalists, are likely to infer that 
the science of the soul can now be had " for a con- 
sideration " and in " a dozen easy lessons." 

All such are doomed to disappointment. 

It is furthermore likely, if the average " physical 
scientist " pays any heed at all, that he will devise 
a series of " tests " and " experiments " of his own, 
to fit his preconceived notion of things psychical, 
with the latent conviction, at least, that he will be 
able to prove the whole thing a humbug. 

These, also, are doomed to disappointment. 
Physical tests of psychical and spiritual laws and 
processes are unscientific. No spiritual problem 
can be solved in terms of physical matter alone. 

So-called psychological science to-day is in the 
condition of one possessing a fine piece of ground, 



212 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

and gathering materials for a house, a super- 
structure. 

The ground is already covered with bricks and 
stones, and sand and lumber, piled in every direc- 
tion, with the purpose of one day beginning the 
work of construction, and the slogan, "Wait! Not 
yet! " " Some day we are hoping to build." 

No architect, " no designs on the trestle-board," 
and so they go on accumulating " facts " and 
" evidence " day after day, year after year, century 
after century. 

They have a " working hypothesis," but no 
definite theorem, and they may work till doomsday 
on this line without a glimmer of real scientific 
knowledge of the human soul, yet with mountains 
of " facts " or of " rubbish." 

They can never prove the existence of a spiritual 
entity in terms of matter on the physical plane. 

Their work has been, and still is, of great interest 
and value, but it is in no scientific sense, Con- 
structive, backed by the laws of proportion and 
harmony, nor the " Canon of Architecture." 

The apotheosis of Natural Science is like the 
" canon of proportion " in architecture, introduced 
by Vitruvius (an Initiate) centuries ago. It is 
the verification of Plato's saying, " God geome- 
trizes," and his concept of " the World of Divine 
Ideas." 

Plato further declares, " He who knows not the 
common things of life is a brute among men. He 
who knows the common things of life is a man among 



THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY 213 

brutes. But he who knows all that can be learned 
by diligent inquiry is a god among men." 

Natural Science, as shown in the Great Work, 
includes scientific knowledge on all planes of being 
on which the soul of man functions: The physical, 
moral, psychical, and spiritual; for man is a com- 
posite being. 

The apotheosis of Natural Science, therefore, 
is Fact, Law, Demonstration, and Knowledge; be- 
fore theory, conjecture, creed, dogma, superstition, 
or fear, intuition, inspiration, revelation, and ■" holy 
men " or " holy books " that must be accepted with- 
out evidence, or " believed " against evidence. 

The Avatars of all the past have originated great 
reformations which have at last degenerated into 
dogma and superstition. 

The people, incapable of understanding the Law, 
have been taught in parables, while the few in all 
religions and in every age have apprehended the 
law and learned the " Secret Doctrine." 

To-day, for the first time in centuries, for the 
reasons already assigned, and in keeping with the 
scientific spirit of the age, and because superstition 
in power, dogma, and persecution are politically 
dethroned, these great truths, this Great Work, is 
openly declared and outlined so that he who wills 
may apprehend. 

Let no one say, " This is an effort to deify 
an individual." It is an effort to enthrone Truth; 
to remove the barriers to the rights of conscience, 
the shackles of reason, private judgment and In- 



214 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

dividual Responsibility, and to free the soul of 
man from all the fetters of ignorance, superstition, 
and fear, in order that he may be " first a man," 
" then a Master," and at length on a higher plane 
of being, something more than man has yet realized, 
or ever dreamed. 

Something " that eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, nor hath it yet entered into the heart of 
man to conceive the glory that shall be revealed." 

The beginning is here and now, when man shall 
achieve the Mastery of Self and really possess his 
own soul, and not hold it tremblingly as a pawn of 
some pretentious potentate of the soul. 

The right of Light, Knowledge, and further 
progress by " Being a Man" and not a chattel, an 
asset, a pawn, or a slave. 

This is the coming Avatar, and the dawn is al- 
ready here. 

Will the day darken, the Light be quenched? 
Who can tell? 

The redemption of Woman from the slavery of 
all the past is well under way, and it is indeed a 
glorious sign. 

No lesson in history is plainer nor more readily 
demonstrated than the fact that the degeneracy of 
a religion and the degradation of woman go hand 
in hand. 

Demonstrate to-day in any country on earth the 
status of woman as a whole, and no mistake need 
be made as to the prevailing religion. 

Woman's political disability is another matter 



THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY 215 

entirely; for she is dominated by man only because, 
and only so far as, she is handicapped or degraded 
by the dominant religion. 

Take woman from the churches, Protestant or 
Romish, to-day, and no church could do business 
for a twelvemonth. 

For these reasons the immense and rapidly grow- 
ing movements, Women's Clubs and the like, to-day, 
are of great significance, backed and illuminated 
as they are by all past history. 

In the new movement, the School of Natural 
Science, the door is as wide open to woman as 
to man. I might paraphrase the slogan of the 
Robber Barons of the middle ages. " She may 
seize who hath the power, She may hold who 
can." 

In the coming Illuminati woman will stand by 
the side of man in all opportunity, endeavor, or 
achievement. 

In the new age woman will be something few 
men have even yet dreamed of. 

We might call this new age re the Woman's 
Avatar ," without doing violence to either religion, 
tradition, history, or science; while the sacred 
Hymns of the Vedas, with the angel of the house- 
hold and the inspirer of the soul of man, the wor- 
ship of Divinity, by both men and women, opened 
a new heaven on this old earth. 

And then — such children as will be born, with- 
out pain, not through chance, caprice, nor under 
protest, but even as they were in Greece, as an 



216 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

offering of Love on the altar of divine man-woman- 
hood, with a song of joy to heaven. 

Prof. Fiske somewhere said, " The evolution of 
man by Natural Selection draws near its close, to 
be followed by that of Divine Selection." 

The Divinity in man is Christos, the " son of the 
Father," the Divine and Eternal Avatar. 

Belief is rather a superficial process, the intellect 
("mortal mind") mingled with the emotions, 
changing and evanescent. " Now you see it, and 
now you don't." It is mingled with hope that 
alternates with fear and doubt. 

Faith, when once analyzed and apprehended, is 
another thing entirely, though nearly every one, 
and most writers, confuse " belief " and " faith." 

" Faith is the soul's intuitive conviction of that 
which both Reason and Conscience approve." 

Genuine faith rarely wavers or changes, because 
it is an evolution, a " growth of the soul," a 
spiritual experience, and it becomes the " dominant 
chord " in the symphony of life, determining 
Harmony. 

It is in this deliberate and discriminative sense 
that I have used the term conviction in relation 
to the Master and his " Great Work." He never 
dogmatizes, nor undertakes to " indoctrinate." 

In answer to a question on some deep and per- 
plexing problem of the soul or of the spiritual 
plane, he replies, "So far as we know, it is so and 
so." " A new experience, or an added light, may 
alter our conclusion." 



THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY 217 

The average individual scarcely realizes what 
absolute sincerity, with no motive save Love of 
Truth, and beneficence to man guided by clear in- 
telligence, and dominated by the rational Will, 
means, or can accomplish. 

These are the natural powers of the human soul. 
There is nothing mysterious or miraculous about 
them, more than in the art of music of a Beethoven 
or a Paganini, or in gymnastics and the winner of 
the Marathon. 

" To shape and use, arise and fly, 
The reeling Faun, the sensual feast, 
Move upward, working out the beast, 
And let the ape and tiger die." 

My conviction is strong, and my Faith unwaver- 
ing. 

" The great and peaceful ones live, regenerating 
the world like the coming of spring: and having 
themselves crossed the ocean of embodied existence, 
help those who try to do the same thing without 
personal motive." (" Crest Jewel of Wisdom.") 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE NEW AVATAR 

FROM all the foregoing general considera- 
tions it- may be discerned that the " New 
Avatar " is strictly that of Scientific Demonstra- 
tion. 

As we use terms in vogue at the present day, 
it pertains to the field of Natural Science. 

This does not imply that it is irreligious, nor 
unreligious, nor sacrilegious. 

When it is clearly apprehended it will be found 
to be the only thing that harmonizes — not the In- 
stitutions of man — but Science, Philosophy, and 
Religion per se, as departments in human intelli- 
gence. 

Man will thus discern " the rational order that 
pervades the universe." 

The purpose and result of such knowledge to 
man are Harmony, Enlightenment, Courage, and 
Hope. 

Man is the arbiter of his own destiny. He may 
become the Master of his own Fate. Such are the 
Illuminati, the " Masters of the Great White 
Lodge," the Benefactors of the whole human 
race, the members of the " School of Natural 
Science." 

218 



THE NEW AVATAR 219 

What would I have my readers do? I answer, 
Investigate! Study! Think! Wait! Hope! An- 
ticipate ! 

Careful, intelligent, and conscientious investiga- 
tion will determine the fact that we possess in 
America to-day one who can fill all the require- 
ments that I have endeavored to designate and 
portray — not as a " reincarnation " of Buddha or 
Jesus, but as a " Master " — one who has been duly 
instructed and prepared, who has had the personal 
experience, and has made a practical demonstration, 
that determines Mastership. 

He has demonstrated that " there is no death," 
but transition only (except through conscious and 
determined devolution, or suicide of the soul) . 
Man is, after all, and in the last analysis, a " free 
moral agent." 

As a Member of the " Great School " he was 
educated and initiated many years ago, and has 
consecrated his life to this service. He has demon- 
strated the separability of the soul by leaving and 
returning to his body at will. 

The School of Natural Science; the Great Work; 
the Individual Representative; the conditions of 
the present age; the opportunities offered; the de- 
mand for real knowledge everywhere; the falling 
in pieces of creeds and dogmas; the expectancy so 
often voiced — all of these correspond intimately 
with what the ancient Aryans designated as 
"Avataric" 

It is not now the deification of any Individual, 



220 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

but the " apotheosis of Natural Science" as the 
foundation and method in the achievement of actual 
knowledge. 

From this actual knowledge will arise a new 
Faith, not a new religion, but the old Religion of 
Humanity, precisely as taught and lived by Jesus, 
Christna, Buddha, and all the other " Redeemers," 
and real Avatars of the past. 

The " Enemy of all Righteousness," as already 
said, have made many attempts to assassinate this 
Representative of the Great School, but he goes 
steadily about his own work. These enemies realize 
the danger to their unholy work, but not the Power 
back of this great movement. This they can never 
destroy. 

The day of enlightenment has come, and the cry 
has gone forth, Ho! all ye who are heavy-laden, 
involved in fear and doubt and uncertainty; be- 
wildered, discouraged, despairing, and committing 
suicide! There is no death! Man is the Arbiter 
of his own Fate! Look up and Live, and Hope 
and Realize! 

And there shall dawn for you a new heaven and 
a new earth in which dwelleth Love and Peace and 
Righteousness; with Jesus — the Christos — your 
"" elder Brother," leading the way, and the down- 
trodden, the poor and despised children of men, 
shouting Hosanna! for the Loving Kindness that 
will have taken the place of selfishness, strife, 
cruelty, superstition, and Dogma. 

Religion will no longer be a matter of mere senti- 



THE NEW AVATAR . 221 

ment, nor of emotion, of blind belief, nor of fear, 
superstition, dogma, nor creed — but a Great Work. 
So Mote it be. 

The author of this volume can lay no claim for 
it as a systematic treatise on Psychology, either 
according to the rules of composition or the orderly 
sequence of science. 

It is rather a number of essays, some of which were 
written without reference to publication, or the 
design, at the time, of putting them together in a 
single volume. 

There is, therefore, more or less repetition, the 
same subject under a different title, viewed from a 
different aspect, yet involving the same principles, 
motives, and aims. 

But the subject of Psychology is so vast, so 
intricate, so interesting and important, and yet, in 
the average mind, so confused, and so little known, 
that considerations from many sides, and even 
repetitions in the application of a given principle 
in various ways, are believed more likely to make 
the whole subject apprehensible to the general 
reader to whom it is addressed. 

Moreover, the author believes that the time has 
come when Psychology, as a Constructive Science 
of the nature, laws, and destiny of the Human Soul, 
need no longer be regarded as unknown or unattain- 
able, but open to all who seek it in the right way, 
giving to it the consideration, time, and loyalty it 
so amply deserves. 

To such as these, it is hoped, the foregoing pages 



222 THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE 

may give many clews and sidelights, suggestions, 
encouragement, and hope. 

Psychology, to the Author of this volume, means 
literally A Knowledge of the Human Soul, rather 
than of treatises upon the subject, or of the opinions, 
beliefs, or dogmas of men. , 



NOTES 

The oligarchy of creeds, and the autocrats of 
Rome no more represent the " Coming of the 
Son of Man," the Divine Logos that was and is " in 
the bosom of the Father in heaven," than do the 
Rockefellers, the Morgans and the Harrimans, con- 
stituting the oligarchy of wealth, or than the politi- 
cal grafters and bosses of our municipalities rep- 
resent the " New Commandment," " that ye love 
one another." The barons of wealth have not yet 
resorted directly to murder, as has Rome for ages. 

St. Augustine says, " What is now called the 
Christian religion existed among the ancients and 
was not absent from the human race until Christ 
came, from which time, the true Religion, which 
existed already, began to be called ' Christian.' " 
(See Heckethorne's " Secret Societies," page 12, 
Introduction. ) 

As to the basis of scientific chronology re- 
garding the Wisdom of the Masters, and their 
indestructible records, I quote the following from 
a modern student of Astrology. His method of 
reckoning is correct, even though his dates may not 
be absolutely exact, as he is not a " Master." 



223 



CHRONOLOGY AND THE ''RIDDLE OF 
THE SPHINX" 

" Ancient religious symbols bear a striking re- 
semblance to the constellations of the heavens, 
especially those of the Zodiac, and if this be their 
true meaning, we have an infallible key to their 
chronology. At the beginning of the Christian 
Era, the constellation Aries, or Ram, occupied the 
equinoctial place, being in the first degree of that 
constellation. About 2150 B.C. the first degree of 
Taurus, or Bull, contained the Equinox. When 
the constellation Taurus, or the Bull, was in the 
first division, or the equinoctial place, the people 
used a symbol representing a bull, described as 
giving fecundity, a deity of vegetation as at Dodona, 
in their religious ceremonies. One of the statuettes 
found recently in the excavations of Crete, was a 
woman figured between bulls and lions, with a 
dove or eagle on her head, and holding serpents in 
her hand. This figure would seem to represent 
mother earth between the constellations Taurus, 
Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. She is figured be- 
tween Taurus (the Bull) on one side, Leo (the 
Lion) at her feet, Aquila (or Eagle) in the con- 
stellation, Aquarius on her head, and Scorpio (or 
the Serpent) in her hand; all forming the sacred 

224 



CHRONOLOGY 225 

cross or ' Swastika,' with the constellations Taurus 
in the vernal Equinox; Leo beneath the earth, the 
Eagle or Aquarius overhead, and Scorpio held in 
her hand toward the west. 

Archaeologists place the date in which this sym- 
bol was in use in Crete at 1100 to 1500 B.C. These 
dates are included between 2150 B.C. and the year 
1 A.D. By the same method we are enabled to 
calculate the age of the Sphinx. 

This Sphinx apparently represents the constella- 
tions Leo (the Lion) and Virgo (the Virgin). It 
has a lion's body, and a woman's head and breast. 
When the Sphinx was built, it seems the spring 
equinox occupied a point between these two con- 
stellations, and as the spring, or Easter, festivals 
of the ancients were held on or about March 21st 
of our calendar, this Sphinx was the representation 
of Leo and Virgo, the point in which the Sun 
crossed the equator, or equinoctial line. 

Now as the equinox retrogrades from east to 
west in the reverse order of the constellations, as 
well as the reverse order of the movement of the 
planets, the Sun will not cross the equator at the 
same point each year, but at a point a little to 
the west, amounting to about fifty and a third 
seconds of arc. At this rate the equinox will pass 
backward through the constellations, making a com- 
plete revolution in a little less than twenty-six 
thousand years, or at the rate of about twenty-one 
hundred and fifty years to a constellation of thirty 
degrees. Now by taking the present position of 



226 CHRONOLOGY 

the equinox in the constellation Pisces, we find that 
it has nearly reached the constellation Aquarius. 
About 1909 years ago it was in the first point of 
Aries. If we begin at its present point in Pisces, 
and count back to the Junction of Leo-Virgo, we 
will have to count 1909 years to first point of Aries; 
2150 years to the first point of Taurus; 2150 years 
to Camini; 2150 years to Cancer; 2150 years to 
Leo and 2150 years to the constellation Virgo. 
This indicates that the Sphinx was built 12,659 
years ago, or approximately 10,750 B. C." (John 
Kilduff.) 



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